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A Street Scene in Constantinople. — Page 107. 




A STORY OF 


y RAVEL 


AND 



DYENTURE. 


BY S. G. W. BENJAMIN. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

DALJGHA/DAY & BECKER, 

424 WALNUT STREET. 

o 


TZ-b 


Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by 

DAUGIIADAY & BECKER, 

In the Clerk's Office of the United States District Court, in and for 
the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 


S. A. GEORGE, 

ELECTROTYPER, STEREOTYPER, AND PRINTER, 
124 N. SEVENTH STREET, PUIL.ADELPHIA. 


CONTENTS 


Chapter I. — Stoneport — Tom’s Air Castles — 
Dick Veazie — His Sister Alice — Bill Free- 
man, the old Sail-Maker — A Word of Ad- 
vice — The “Alice” — Tom and Dick Veazie 
coasting around Cape Cod — The Storm — The 
Accident — The Destruction of the “Alice” 

— Dick Overboard — Tom’s Eescue — The 
“Philadelphia” — Mr. Turrell— Liverpool. ...7-23 

Chapter II. — A Visit to the United States 
Consulate — At the Home of Mr. Turrell — 
Lichfield — Preparations for starting for the 
Orient — London — Island of Malta — Greece — 

The valet Nicholas — Captain Manole — A 
“White Squall” 23-39 

Chapter III. — Napoli — Preparations for Jour- 
neying to Athens — Greek Brigands — The 
Attack — The party captured by Brigands — 
Captain Christo — The ransom money sent 
for — Captain Christo’s Story 40-54 

Chapter IV. — Nicholas’s villainy — Arrested 
and sent back with the ransom money, un- 
der guard — Great anxiety of the Captives — 
Their escape and re-capture — The arrival 
of the Kansom — The Release — Letters from 
Home — Account of Dick Vcazie’s Rescue ,..55-73 

( 3 ) 


4 


CONTENTS. 


Chapter V. — The Acropolis — A Look at 
Athens — The Legend of Theseus and the 
Minotaur — Off for Constantinople — The Bat- 
tle of Alma — Leander and Hero — A “ Com- 
'pagnon du 'Goyage'"' 73-89 

Chapter VI. — The City of Constantinople — , 
Kunning the gauntlet of Guides — The Sul- 
tan — Eoyal Pageantry — The Sultan’s fear 
of Cats — “ Maha-la-he-ge-e-e-e-e !” — The va- 
let Beppo — Dervishes — A Gipsy and his 
dancing Bear — Dangerous Amusement — The 
Start for Sebastopol 90-110 

Chapter VII. — “Sebastopol be hanged!” — 
Balaclava — Turrell becomes Captain — In 
camp — Tom’s birthday dinner at the 
“ Front” — Fitzroy — The Goose — Where did 
Beppo get it ? — The question answered — Let- 
ters from Home — “The Charge of the Light 
Brigade” — Sad Fate of Fitzroy 111-129 

Chapter VIII. — The “5th of November” — 

The Kussians’ Attack — The Battle of Inker- 
man — Tom in Action — Wounded — The Dy- 
ing Drummer Boy — The Meeting with Cap- 
tain Turrell — A Terrible Gale — Forty vessels 
of the Allied fleet destroyed — Captain Tur- 
rell wounded 130-146 

Chapter IX.— Captain Turrell pronounced 
unfit for further duty — Tom and Captain 
Turrell resume their travels — The Check- 
dem6 — Port of Moodania — Brusa — Midnight 


CONTENTS. 


5 


Dinner — Shock of an Earthquake — The 
Story of Othm^n — A Turkish Bath — An Ar- 
menian Wedding Ceremony — An Appalling 
Calamity — A City in Ruins— Tom Buried 
Alive — The Rescue — The Bride Claimed by 
the Bridegroom, Death 147-170 

Chapter X. — Departure from Brusa — A Jour- 
ney across the Turkish Empire — Tom’s 
knowledge of the Turkish Tongue — Adven- 
tures by the way — A Boar Hunt — An Enemy 
in Camp — The Capture of the maiden Ibla — 

The Rescue 171-192 

Chapter XI. — The Terrible Summer Heats — 
Sennacherib — Mr. Layard — Bagdad — Meet- 
ing Nicholas — Journeying down the Tigris — 
Aboard the Diana for the China Seas— Cap- 
tain Ringbolt — The Captain’s Story — How 
he found a Wife 193-226 

Chapter XII. — Chinese Pirates — A Distant 
Vessel Attacked — To the Rescue — The Board- 
ing Party — Tom and Captain Turrell’s En- 
thusiasm — The “Union,” Boston — Captain 
Veazie — The Fight with the Pirates — Cap- 
tain Turrell Killed — The Pirates overcome 
— The Burial at Sea— “Home Again” — 
Thomas Roper, Lawyer — Sacred to the 
IMemory of Arthur Turrell 227-245 


UST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, 


I. A STBEET SCENE IN CONSTANTINOPLE. 

Frontispiece. 

II. The Accident. 

III. A White Squall on the Mediterranean. 

IV. A Surprise by Greek Brigands. 

V. Mr. Kondopoulos pays the forfeit. 

VI. A Lookout upon the Acropolis. 

VII. “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” 
VITI. Tom and the wounded Drummer Boy. 

IX. The yoyage on the Checkdeme. 

X. The Capture of Ibla. 

XI. The Bescue. 

XII. The Burial at Sea. 


ADVENTURES OE TOM ROPER. 


-«©► 

Chapter I. 

HOMAS KOPEE lived in the town of 
Stoneport, on the coast of Kew Eng- 
land. His father was a successful 
lawyer, and destined his son for the same 
profession ; but Tom, as he was familiarly 
called, had other projects in view. When he 
reached his sixteenth year, the period when boys 
begin to grow ambitious, and puzzle their brains 
with castles in the air, Tom’s cherished plan 
was to go to sea. Next door to his home lived 
his friend Dick Veazie, whose father was a' 
captain, sailing ships out of Boston to the East 
Indies. Dick expected, as a matter of course, 
to go on a voyage with his father before many 
years, and looked forward with impatience and 
delight to the day when he should pace the 
quarter-deck of his own ship. 

The two boys were great cronies, devoting 

( 1 ) 



8 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


little of their time, I am sorry to say, to study, 
and a great deal to loafing along the wharves, 
watching the vessels come in with their cargoes 
of lumber from Maine, of coal from Pennsyl- 
vania, and of ivory and dates from Africa ; or 
they rowed about the harbor, in a dory, or 
skimmed over the blue waters in a sail-boat be- 
longing to Dick. In these little excursions they 
were often accompanied by Dick’s sister, Alice, 
a fair-haired, blue-eyed girl, who looked very 
charming in a sort of boating costume which she 
wore on such occasions, and who could row a 
skiff as well as any boy in the port. “ 

Mr. Koper saw with pain the passion his son 
had acquired for the sea, and was at a loss 
how to induce Mm to give up his wild schemes. 
After much reflection on this subject, he called 
Tom into his library one morning after break- 
fast, and laid the matter before him seriously 
but kindly. He told him that when he grew to 
manhood he would often regret the choice of a 
sea life, when separated most of the time from 
his friends, and that even if he should by-and-by 
become a captain, the responsibilities and hard- 
ships of his occupation would make him long 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


0 


for a steady business at home, for which he 
would then be unfitted. He told him, further, 
that his mother’s happiness was largely depen- 
dent on his welfare, and that the anxiety she 
would feel if Tom were always far away on the 
stormy deep, would wear upon her already en- 
feebled frame ; while, if he remained at home 
and went through college, he would have the 
hearty satisfaction of pleasing his parents, and 
a reasonable prospect of success in an honorable 
profession. In addition to these reasons, Mr. 
Roper promised to give his son a sail boat of his 
own, in which he could enjoy himself during his 
vacations, and find vent for his taste for aquatic 
sports. And finally, he gave Tonq a week to think 
over the matter and decide what he would do. 

There was an old sail-maker who in his earlier 
days had followed the sea, and now had his 
sail-loft in a large, weather-worn, dilapidated 
building by the water. Ilis name was Bill 
Freeman, and a nice old fellow he was, with 
many a yarn to spin or a word of good advice 
to give to the boys when they clambered up to 
his loft to spend an idle hour : and to him Tom 
concluded to go now for advice, after thinking 


10 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


for several daj^s over his father’s proposition 
without being able to come to a conclusion. 

“lYall,” said Bill, after hearing Tom, and 
rolling his quid of tobacco from one cheek to the 
other, giving at the same time a hoist to his 
pantaloons and elevating his left eyebrow and 
then letting it fall as if it had slipped off from a 
peg, and taking a precautionary look all around 
to see that the coast was clear, more from habit 
than any other reason : “Wall, my boy, I’ll tell 
you what it is, now ; you’ve got a mighty kind 
father, and that’s a fact ; ’taint every boy’s got 
a father good as yourn. Kow he’s got the best 
of it in this matter, and no mistake. I know 
how it looks to ^ you, this going to sea *, I saw' it 
just the same when I ran away from home 
more’ll thirty year ago, and broke my mother’s 
lieart ; but take my word for it, there aint a 
dog as leads such a life as you’ll lead before the 
mast ; and like as not, you’ll never git any 
higher. But you take your father’s advice now, 
and it’s a sure thing for you. And what’s more 
and better you’ll do your duty like a man ; and 
who knows, may be, when you grow up and git 
rich, you’ll go oil’ and see the w^orld on your owui 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


11 


hook. Kow, my son, I feel for you, but, my 
word for it, you’ll never rue it if you just follow 
the advice of an old man who knows the ropes 
and don’t want nothin’ better than to see you 
make a good start in life.” 

Kotwithstanding his roving propensities, Tom 
was open to reason, and was a good boy at heart, 
so after a considerable struggle, he decided to 
remain at home and go to college, and as he 
was a boy of a good share of resolution, he 
agreed to his father’s proposal to enter an 
academy at once, he and Dick going to the same 
institution, the one to prepare for college, the 
other to acquire some knowledge of the English 
branches, such as arithmetic and navigation, be- 
fore commencing his life on the sea. Although 
it would be hardly fair to Tom to say that his 
father’s promised gift of a yacht was the chief 
inducement that kept him at home, still, as you 
may well suppose, this occupied many of his 
thoughts, and, during the winter term, the two 
boys often discussed ,the building of it. Dick 
rather inclined to have it sloop-rigged, but Tom 
reasoned about it in this way : 

“A sloop is very handy for managing by 


12 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


one’s self, that’s clear as daylight, and then for 
racing she sails a leetle the best, and turns right 
on her heel in staying, but then, you see, she 
aint so good for going on the coast or standing 
heavy weather ; if it conies on to blow, all you 
have to do is to drop your foresail and there you 
are, just as snug as — ” 

“Well, well, she’s your own boat and you 
can have her just what you want ; I know what 
I’d do if she were my boat, but I’ve got nothin’ 
to say about it,” was usually Dick’s rejply, and 
there the matter would rest. 

In the winter holidays inquiry was made by 
Tom for the best boat-builder, a bargain was 
struck and the keel of his boat was laid in March, 
and when May came around with its sunny 
skies, Tom and Dick sailed her around the coast 
to Stoneport. A jaunty little schooner she was, 
painted white as the snowy wing of the seabird ; 
she had a cosy little cuddy with bunks and 
lockers, and, as perhaps you have already ima- 
gined, her name was the “Alice.” Many a plea- 
sant sail did the boys have thajb summer, and in 
August they started on a little expedition around 
Doston Bay, intending to coast around Cape Cod 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


13 


and Cape Ann, where there are many curious 
harbors and quaint old towns, employing many 
schooners in fishing, and redolent with “an 
ancient fishy smell. ” 

After a charming trip, sailing by day and 
putting into port at night, they finally started 
for home. It was a bright morning when they 
left Provincetown, on the extreme end of Cape 
Cod, but it gradually grew muggy and the wind 
fell, at the same time coming in light fiaws 
around from the eastward. 

“I’ll tell you what it is, Dick,” said Tom, 
“ we are in for a regular northeaster, but I guess 
we’d fetch Stoneport before night if it wasn’t 
for this vexatious calm.” 

Toward noon a swell began to set in from 
the northeast, the sure precursor of a storm, 
and the fog settled down more dark and dense, 
shutting out from view the schooners which had 
been visible till now around the horizon, rolling 
to and fro like logs, their sails flapping heavily. 

“There goes a seal,” cried Dick, and sure 
enough a seal went by their boat, making for 
Boston harbor, just raising its long-whiskered, 
human-looking face above the surface. 


14 ADVEK3?URES OF TOM ROPER. 

“If you’ll steer, I guess I’ll get out an oar,” 
said Tom; “ ’twont hurt us to get inside ‘of 
Boston Light or ISTahant before it blows to- 
night.” 

Slowly the long afternoon went by ; two or 
three times the boys thought they heard the 
roar of surf to leeward, but it was probably a 
mistake, and when the dim evening enveloped 
the deep with its gloom, the Alice was still far 
out to sea. By this time the wind was setting 
into a heavy breeze, moaning over the lonely sea 
like a dirge, and sometimes coming in strong 
blasts that laid the Alice down to her rail, and 
as she careered, arrow-like, over the swelling 
surges, several seas came on board. 

‘‘Lower away your foresail and get out the 
lantern,” cried Tom, “and hoist it at the fore- 
mast-head ; it can’t be seen far in such a fog, but 
like as not one of these confounded schooners 
will take it into her head to run foul of us, and 
it sha’n’t be our fault if she does.” 

Dick let go the fore halliards and furled the 
sail ; he then went into the cuddy and trimmed 
the lantern and lighted it ; but as he stepped 
forward on deck with it in his hand, the Alice 


ADVENTURES OF T03I ROPER. 


15 


gave a violent lurch, causing him to slip on the 
wet deck, and as he suddenly saved himself 
by clutching a rope, the lantern was wrenched 
from his grasp, and dropped into the sea, sink- 
ing like lead. 

There, if you aint gone and done it now I” 
exclaimed Tom ; I guess you couldn’t be more 
, lubberly if you tried ; just because the oil all 
leaked out of the can, and because I forgot to 
bring a spare lantern, you couldn’t find nothin’ 
better than to lose the only one we had, ovei*- 
board. You couldn’t have done it slicker if 
you’d tried a- week.” 

There was no use in complaining about it 
now, however, and the two boys set their wits 
to work to contrive some other light. ‘‘I have 
it,” said Dick; “there’s that sardine box that 
we haven’t opened yet ; that’ll burn all night. 
It’ll give some show through the dead lights of 
the cuddy.” 

With a jack-knife the lid of the box Avas soon 
pried off, the sardines were taken out and the 
oil squeezed out of them, and a wick was then 
placed in the box and lighted. It burned admira- 
bly and was certainly better than nothing. 


16 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


In the meanwhile the wind had been freshen- 
ing to a gale, and as, by this time, they were 
IR'obably not far from some fog-enveloped shore 
on which they might suddenly rush to destruc- 
tion, they concluded to lie to, until daylight, 
which means so to trim the sails and the helm 
as to keep the vessel nearly stationary with her 
head to the wind, as if she were riding at anchor. 
Dick then turned into the cuddy to catch a 
little sleep, while Tom remained at the helm 
and watched. Dick was to relieve him in two 
hours. 

The storm increased in fury and the gallant 
little craft pitched as if she would* go down. 
From the port-hole on each side streamed a 
narrow hut steady streak of light from the faith- 
ful wick in the sardine box, tipping the toppling 
crests of foam with a ruddy hue as they hung 
over the frail boat, but making the impenetrable 
gloom beyond more mysterious and terrible by 
contrast. How the wind howled that night in 
the rigging ! As Tom stood out his manly vigil, 
at that lonely hour, he realized the grandeur and 
the peril of their situation, but the buoyancy of 
youth gave him courage, and while he some- 


AD VENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


17 


times sent up an inaudible prayer to Him who 
never slumbers nor sleeps, he was also lost in 
wonder at the magnificent white surges rolling 
out from the darkness beyond, like ghosts of the 
sea, and sweeping by to be lost again in the 
shades of night. 

Tom had watched thus for perhaps an hour 
when his half-dozing senses were aroused by a 
sudden glare that illumined a large space in 
the fog like the sun shining through a thin 
mist ; it grew brighter almost instantaneously, 
gathering into a focus, and at the same moment 
the rush of waters, as if around a ship’s bow, 
and the howl of wind, as through the shrouds of 
a large vessel, struck his ear like a death-knell. 
He comprehended the situation at once, and 
although his brain was almost stupefied with 
horror, he had the presence of mind to scream, 
“Dick, Dick, for God’s sake, wake up, Dick!” 
and then he shouted to the steersman of the 
approaching vessel, “ down with your helm, hard 
down 1” but that feeble sound was lost in the 
roar of the elements, and scarcely were the 
words out of his lips when a towering form of 
hull, spars and sails emerged vaguely from the 


18 ADVENTUllES OF T03I llOrEll. 

gloom, mounting on the crest of a vast billow, 
the red and green lights on. each side glaring on 
the doomed boat like the eyes of a demon on his 
victim. An instant of suspense that seemed 
ages to Tom, and the vessel of a thousand tons 
plunged down the surge, and crushed through 
the frail timbers of the Alice as if they were 
made of paper. 

A crash of breaking spars, the tangle of ropes, 
and the awful rush of boiling foam, seemed to 
drag him down to destruction, and then, Tom 
felt an iron chain in his hand ; he griped it with 
the clutch of despair, and the next moment found 
himself rising high in the air as the ship’s bow 
rose on the next wave. He had caught hold 
of her bob-stay. Although almost drowned, 
he had sense enough left to recollect that the 
next plunge of the bow would take him under 
again, so he pulled himself up nearer to the 
bowsprit, and shouted for help. He could not 
have held on long, but fortunately the collision 
had been sufficiently felt on the vessel to give 
the alarm, and the mate was looking over the 
bow to investigate, at the moment that Tom 


Ihe Accidektt. — Page 18. 




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ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 19 

shouted. He was immediately hauled in, more 
dead than alive. 

“ There’s another, heave over a rope, a barrel, 
any thing, and be quick !” he exclaimed, and 
then fainted with exhaustion. He was taken 
aft to the cabin, cordials were administered, and 
he was put to sleep. The vessel, in the mean- 
time, was hove to, and hencoops and other 
objects thrown over, but it was out of the ques- 
tion on such a night to lower a boat, and after 
a short time, the vessel went oft’ again on her 
course, and poor Dick was left to his fate. 

On waking the next morning, the events of 
the past night seemed to Tom like a fearful 
nightmare, and as he clasped his throbbing 
brow with his hot hands to assure himself that 
he was indeed awake, a pang of inexpressible 
pain pierced his heart when he thought of the 
terrible death of his friend Dick, of the suspense 
their parents would feel for the fate of their 
sons, and of his own almost miraculous escape 
from a watery grave. 

When Tom went on deck, he found it blowing 
a heavy gale, the vessel laying over to it, under 
close-reefed topsails. She proved to be the 


20 


ADVENTUIIES OF TOM ROrEll. 


packet ship Philadelphia, bound for Liverpool. 
The captain was a kind sort of a man, and did 
all in his power to make it pleasant for Tom ; 
and one of the passengers, named Turrell, a 
young Englishman fond of the sea, who, having 
just fallen heir to a large property, was re- 
turning to England, took such a liking to Tom 
that he offered to hear all his expenses if he 
would accompany him on the travels he pro- 
posed to make in the Orient. The proposal was 
so agreeable that Tom accepted it, without 
reflecting what would be his parents’ wishes on 
the subject. But off the coast of Ireland their 
travels very nearly came to an end. 

The wind was blowing a gale in St. George’s 
channel and the mist enveloi^ed the land, but 
the captain thought the vessel was at a safe 
distance from a lee shore, when, at breakfast 
time, the fog suddenly lifted, and showed the 
savage breakers of the Coningbeg reef scarce 
half a mile ahead, and the ship was bearing 
directly down upon them at the rate of eleven 
knots. “Breakers ahead !” was the fearful cry 
from the watch on the bow, which called all 
hands on deck in a twinkling. The third mate 


ADVENTUr.ES OF TOM EOPEE. 


21 


took the helm, and the captain, standing in the 
■weather inizzen-shrouds, rang out his orders 
quick and loud above the wailing of the -wind. 
Sooner than it takes to write it, the topgallant 
sails were unfurled and hoisted, and the noble 
ship, heeling over to her scuppers, her masts 
bending like whip sticks, clawed off the land, run- 
ning inside of the light ship, but just clearing 
the ledge. Every one drew a long breath when 
the danger was passed. If the fog had not provi- 
dentially lifted when it did the ship would have 
struck in five minutes, and many, if not all, on 
board, would have been lost. 

Toward noon the wind moderated, all sail 
was spread, many steamers and ships were 
passed outward bound, the coast of Wales 
hove in sight, and at evening the magnificent 
light at Holyhead flashed its welcome flame over 
the sea. At midnight a pilot came on board, 
a short, burly, red-faced, good-natured English- 
man, who welcomed the passengers to “Hold 
Ilengland,” and the next morning, which was 
Sunday, the Philadelphia anchored in the Mer- 
sey, the harbor of Liverpool. Tom was struck 
with astonishment as he gazed upon the fine 


22 


ADVE?^TURES OF TOM ROPEE. 


Stone docks and warehouses of the port, the 
finest, x)erhaps, in the world. 

He and his friend, Mr. Turrell, went ashore in 
a tug, and for the first time Tom stepi)ed foot on 
the noble island whence his ancestors sprung. 
Immediately bn reaching the hotel, he wrote to 
his parents an account of the thrilling adven- 
tures he had gone through since he had left 
home, informed them of his plans, gave them 
his address, and then, ' I am glad to say, was 
sufficiently mindful of his duty, to attend even- 
ing service, and return thanks for the mere}’’ 
which had preserved him from so many perils. 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


23 


Chapter II. 



N the Monday following, Tom’s first 
business was to visit the United 
States consulate in Liverpool, and 


procure a passport, without which he could 
not travel abroad, except under great diffi- 
culties and constant liability to arrest. The 
captain of the Philadelphia accompanied him, 
to certify to Tom’s being an American citizen, 
and after a certain amount of questioning, 
during which the consul volunteered the re- 
mark that he thought Tom’s story rather hard 
to believe, and that if it were true, then he had 
better return home at once, a passport was 
granted him. This document set forth that 
Tom was seventeen years of age, of medium 
height, brown hair, hazel eyes, forehead high, 
nose straight, etc. The broad seal of the United 
States, whereon the American eagle savagely 
brandished a bunch of arrows, and bade defiance 
to the world, gave dignity and importance to 
the sheet of paper which Tom carried away 
with him, as a defence against all enemies. 


24 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROFEIl. 


Tom and his friend Mr. Turrell then crossed 
the river Mersey, in a long, narrow ferry boat, 
and took the cars for Mr. Turrell’s house in the 
county of Stafford, or, as it is usually called, 
Staffordshire. They stopped at Chester to dine, 
and after a hearty meal, strolled an hour about the 
old town, while waiting tor the train. Chester 
is the most curious city in England. The 
battlemented wall, erected hundreds of years 
ago, still suiTounds the place ; the side streets 
are quaint, narrow lanes, while the business 
streets have a coverej^ sidewalk on each side 
even with the second story of the buildings, the 
stores being located along these covered ways, 
and all pedestrians thus walk, and do their 
shopping, protected from the elements. This 
was doubtless suggested by tlie great quantity 
of rain that falls in England. 

As Tom rode along southward, during the 
afternoon, in the cars, he seemed to be passing 
through a vast garden. Beautiful parks, splen- 
did mansions, smooth-shaven lawns, ivy-hung 
cottages, and noble herds of cattle, were every- 
where to be seen. Even the railroad was 
bordered with hedges, and the station depots 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


25 


had gardens attached to them. Late in the 
afternoon, they arrived at the old Cathedral, 
town of Lichfield, where our travelers were to 
stop. On stepping out of the cars, they found 
Mr. Turrell’s carriage awaiting them,, with 
coachman and footman in livery. A pleasant 
ride soon brought them to Mr. Turrell’s family 
mansion, which he had inherited on the death 
of an older brother. It was an elegant establish- 
ment, in the style peculiar to houses of wealth 
in England, with a beautiful lawn in front, and 
flanked by extensive stables, dog kennels, hen- 
cries and pigeon roosts. 

Here Mr. Turrell and Tom remained some 
weeks, the former getting his affairs into shape 
before going abroad again, while the latter had 
a fine riding horse X3laced at his disposal, and 
roamed about the neighborhood at his leisure, 
acquiring some knowledge of England. His 
ancestors had originally come from a small 
hamlet in Staflbrdshire, as Tom was reminded 
in one of his rambles by stumbling on the name 
of Roper, engraved indistinctlj’’ upon a moss- 
grown tombstone in a village graveyard. This 
caused him to recollect that he had heard his 


2G 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


father mention the name of the place from 
which his great, great, grandfather »had emi- 
grated for America. This circumstance led 
Tom to feel all the more interested in all he saw 
about him, and gave a sort of home aspect to 
the country. Often he walked over to Lichfield 
to stroll through the ancient streets where the 
famous Dr. Johnson used to play when a boy ; 
in the kitchen of the Swan inn, he w'as shown 
the veritable massive, oak table that was 
formerly in Johnson’s house. But no place 
pleased him more than the magnificent cathe- 
dral, over a thousand years old ; never before 
had he seen any thing which seemed to him 
half so grand and beautiful ; he never wearied 
of gazing on the curious row of colossal statues 
over the doorway, representing the kings and 
queens of England, and the three lofty, pointed 
spires, towering against the blue sky and re- 
flected in the jjacid stream that mirrored the 
vast edifice, while swans glided gracefully on its 
glassy bosom. But when Tom entered, boy as 
he was and caring more for fun and adventure 
than for antiquities and works of art, like most 
boys, yet he could not help being struck with 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


27 


awe and astonishment at the groined nave lit 
with the many-colored rays that stole through 
the exquisite stained-glass windows, the choir 
with its rich oak carvings and all the other 
interesting objects, which make this cathedral 
one of the most perfect and glorious buildings in 
England, or in the world. 

But the day came at last when Mr. Turrell 
was ready to set out on his oriental travels. 
After considerable discussion of various plans, 
it had been decided that they should ’take a 
steamer at London for Malta, and on arriving 
there, would settle what further course they 
should follow. 

To describe all the famous old buildings, 
all the wonderful and novel sights, which Tom 
saw during the feiv days he was in London, for 
one of English ancestry, and for all who speak 
the English language, second to no other city in 
the world in interest, would be to tell so much 
tliat there would be no room left for describing 
Tom’s further adventures. You will have to 
go and see for yourself what he saw, when you 
grow older. 

They embarked on a screw steamer, which, 


28 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


as you may know, is a steamboat moved by a 
propeller, instead of side or paddle-wheels. As 
the vessel was constructed of iron, they had to 
stop at Green Hithe, on their way down the 
Thames, and adjust the compasses, which are 
always liable to be disturbed by the attraction 
of the iron, and have ^to be very carefully com- 
pared with a compass on shore before leaving 
port. After this was done, the vessel put to sea, 
passing without adventure through the English 
Channel, by the Isle of Wight, across the stormy 
Eay of Biscay, along the coast of Portugal, and 
by Cape Trafalgar, w^here Lord Nelson won the 
greatest naval battle in history, but fell mortally 
wounded on the deck of his flag-ship, at the 
moment when the victory was his. On a lovely 
morning, when the sun was rising, the steamboat 
glided through the Straits of Gibraltar, on one 
side of which is the vast rock of that name, 
towering to an immense height above the sea. 
It has been hollowed out with galleries, and 
cannon, by the hundred, iDoint in all directions 
through port-holes which can not be distinguish- 
ed more than a few rods off, so tangled are they 
with brushwood. It is the strongest fortifi- 


ADVENTUKES OF TOM EOrEE. 


29 


cation ill the world. Monkeys are to be seen 
grinning and entering in the caves of this i-ock, 
the only place where they are to be found living 
in Europe. How they came there is a mystery ; 
some people think there is a passage under the 
Strait, which is sixteen miles broad: hut this 
is only conjecture. On the opposite side of the 
Strait is Ape’s Hill, standing out majestically 
into the Atlantic, and behind it loom the 
sharp, snow-clad jieaks of the Atlas moun- 
tains. 

A few da5^s more of steaming, and our 
friends found themselves at the island of Malta. 
You may remember that Paul was wrecked on 
this island, which, in his time, was called 
Melita. When the steamer came to anchor, 
boats clustered around her laden with oranges, 
prickly pears; grapes, and other fruits, which 
showed that Tom had arrived in the warm climes 
of the Mediterranean. Boys, too, swam around 
the steamer and begged for pennies to be thrown 
over to them. When a coin was dropped into 
the water, they dived after it, and it was rarely 
that some one of them did not come up laughing 
with glee and holding up the penny in his hand. 


• 30 ADVENTUliES OF TOM liOPER. 

On going ashore, Tom and his ‘friend were at 
once beset hy a group of vociferous vagabonds, 
who followed them everywhere, expecting a fee 
for guiding them over the town. iN’either hard 
words in good plain English, nor even blows, 
seemed to disturb or drive off the pertinacious 
varlets, who took it all as a matter of course, 
knowing, probably, from long experience, that 
they would finally worry the travelers into 
giving them something, as a last resort for 
getting rid of their company ; and I am sorry to 
say that Tom did take this very course, after 
holding out manfully for a while. 

The city of Valetta, which occupies a good 
part of the little island, is built on the sides 
of very steep hills, which makes the streets 
very precipitous, so that many of them are in 
reality a succession of flights of stairs. The 
shops are gaudy with necklaces, breastpins, 
bracelets, and other ornaments of coral, which 
is procured in that vicinity by dredging, and is 
sold for a very much smaller price than is paid 
for such trifles in this country. 

In former ages Malta was held by the Knights 
of St. John, an order of steel-clad soldiers 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROFEK. 31 

famous for their valor and their victories. 
They surrounded the city with immense fortifi- 
cations, but the most interesting building they 
left is the .Church of St. John, whose interior 
walls are covered with the most elaborate 
carvings on stone, all profusely gilded, while 
the railing before the altar is of massive silver ; 
and the pavement of the church is composed of 
the tombstones of the knights, inlaid with 
inscriptions and devices, of many-colored mar- 
bles, a gorgeous siDectacle. At the Governor’s 
palace, they show the old armory of the knights 
and all sorts of murderous weapons, captured 
from the Turks. Among other curiosities which 
Tom saw, was an old cannon made of heavy 
coils of rope, tightly bound together with bands 
of iron, and coated inside with sheet iron. He 
tried on one of the bronze helmets worn by 
some hero of the past ; but so heavily did it 
press on his skull, and so close did it seem when 
he put the vizor down over his face, that he 
wondered how men' could ever fight with such 
a weight on their heads, and was glad enough 
to take it off again. 

After a few days spent agreeably in wander- 


32 


ADVENTUllES OF T03I llUrEll. 


ing about Malta, the travelers concluded to 
proceed to Greece, and, instead of taking the 
voyage monotonously by steamer, they went on 
board a Greek brig, named the Katerina, bound 
for Kapoli. The accommodations were wretched, 
dirty and full of fleas, but more entertainment 
was to be obtained in this way, and they pro- 
posed, when the^ weather was fine, to sleep on 
deck. They were accompanied by their valet 
Kicholas, whom they engaged at Malta, an 
Ionian Islander, who could smatter in English, 
Erench, Italian and Turkish, and could lie with 
ecpial facility in all these languages, besides 
2)ossessing extraordinary ability at lying in his 
native Greek. The sailors were not bad looking 
fellows, with a cunning, yet good-humored ex- 
pression in their coal-black eyes, as if they 
would like to turn pirates if they only had a fail- 
opportunity, but would joke with their victims 
while fleecing them. Most of them wore large 
scarlet skull caps, called fezes, with a short, 
but heavy blue silk tassel, something like smok- 
ing caps ; and they were dressed in short jackets, 
and very full cotton trowsers, gathered at the 
knee, and leaving the calf of the leg bare. When 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


33 


they climbed the masts, in a good breeze, the 
wind would swell out these galligaskins, and 
make them appear like balloons, and when the 
topsails were hoisted, the men who bad un- 
furled them clung to the halliards and came 
down on the run, raising the heavy yards 
with their own weight, — quite a merry sight. 

The captain, who was named ManOli, was 
a handsome but weather-beaten old fellow, and 
had an enormous mustache, whose ends hung 
down on his breast. He took a particular liking 
for Tom, especially after he had heard the story 
of his night adventure and escape. lie had been 
in many a rough scene, in early life, and on 
calm moonlight evenings, when the brig was 
stealing quietly along before the night wind, he 
used to regale the passengers and crew with ex- 
citing yarns, which Nicholas would translate, 
frequently with additions of his own. 

One evening he described the destruction 
of the Turkish admiral’s ship, at Scio, when the 
Katerina was otf Cape St. Angelo, w^hich is noted 
for being a gusty headland, where a hermit lives 
in a little hut, on the extreme, end of the cape ; 

and there is a superstition, that if ships go by with- 
3 


34 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


out sending a boat ashore, with provisions for 
him, lie brews a tempest for them ; so, that Greek 
vessels, when becalmed off the cape, not unfre- 
quently humor the testy old man, by sending 
him some supper. On the evening in question it 
was too breezy to comply with the rule, and the 
brig held on her course. Captain ManOli or- 
dered in the light sails aloft, and having made 
every thing snug for the night, wrapped himself 
in his heavy cap3te, or hooded overcoat of felt, 
and seated himself in the stern, with his pipe. 
Around him gathered passengers and crew, for 
there is not much discipline on Greek ships, and 
conversation was soon very lively. 

“It was such a night as this, only perhaps 
a little darker,” said Caiitain ManSli, twirl- 
ing his mustache, “it was such a night, near 
thirty years ago, that I was on board Ka- 
naris’ fireship, when we blew up the Capitan 
Pasha’s three decker, with two thousand souls. 
As we glided down to the Turkish fleet, through 
the straits of Scio, we could hear the shouting 
of the crews, for they were celebrating Bair am, 
and were too busy with their nonsense to keep a 
good watch out ahead. But when we got up 


ADYENTUr.ES OF TOM EOPER. 


35 


close to them, and they discovered us creeping 
up through the gloom, with a light breeze in our 
sails, then they were lively enough, I warrant 
you ; what a yelling, what a firing of cannon, 
riglit and left, what a hubbub rang through the 
fleet ! But in the midst of it all, we laid the fire- 
ship alongside of the admiral’s ship, Kanaris 
fired the train, we shouted, “Victory to the 
cross !” and leaped aboard our boat ; as we rowed 
back to our ships, we could see the mischief we 
had done. Then the flames leaped up the 
rigging, then night was turned into day, and 
then, — but you never saw or heard a ship of a 
hundred guns, and two thousand men on board, 
blow up, and it’s no use trying to describe it to 
you.” 

Here Captain Manoli puffed away at his pipe 
vigorously, as if thereby to give vent to the 
excitement of his feelings ; then, taking an un- 
easy glance to windward, and not liking the 
looks of the sky, he ordered the main top-gallant 
sail to be taken in. Hardly were the words out 
of his mouth, when an ominous whistling was 
heard in the rigging, and a dismal roar that 
seemed to approach the ship from all sides. 


ac ADA'E^TTUKES OF TOM ROPEE. 

“ All hands ahoy 1” yelled the captain, “ clew 
np the foresail, brail the spanker, and stand by 
to let go the fore and main topsail halliards !” 

It was too late ; the squall struck the brig, 
and would have laid her on her beam ends, if 
the sails had not gone. They split to ribbons 
with a sound like a clap of thunder, or like a 
battery of cannon. 

“A Mediterranean white squall!” cried Tur- 
rell, as he and Tom, and several others, were 
hurled promiscuously across the deck by the 
sudden careening of the vessel, only saving 
themselves by grasping ropes, or whatever came 
in the way. 

“ May the saints have mercy on us !” piteously 
ejaculated the panic-stricken sailors, crossing 
themselves fervently, and vowing presents for. 
the shrines of the Yirgin Mary and St. Nicholas, 
if they would only save them. 

But Captain Manoli, who was made of sterner 
stuif, kept his stout soul undismayed and, fierce- 
ly gesticulating, could be heard above the howl- 
ing of the wind, shouting, “Get out there, you 
set of lubbers ! don’t you know better, than to 
be sniveling at such a time ! Courage, fellow- 


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4 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROFER. 


37 


countrymen ! Here, Petro, you coward, go up 
there and furl that main top-gallant sail. AYliat 
are you doing on your knees, Demetraky ? come 
on here and lend a hand, to take in these rags !” 

Tom had wit enough to see what was wanted, 
and springing into the rigging, lay aloft with 
those of the erew who were coming to their 
senses, and assisted in making the ship snug. 

In the meantime the squall was raging with 
sueh terrific violence, that it actually prevented 
any considerable waves from rising, but blew the 
foam over the surface, so that the sea was per- 
fectly white, like a frozen lake covered with 
snow, and the spray flew over the vessel like 
driving rain. In half an hour the squall passed 
over, and new sails being bent or fastened on 
the yards, the Katerina held on her course, but 
it continued squally all night. 

After matters had become more quiet, Nich- 
olas, who had suddenly disappeared and remain- 
ed invisible all this time, now came forward, 
swaggering like a whipped rooster, that holds 
up his head and pipes a feeble crow, when his 
enemy is out of sight, and wanted to know why 
they made such a row about a little capful of 


38 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


wind ; for his part, he never slept better in his 
life, than when the whole crew were at their 
wits’ ends. 

“You asleep!” cried Tom, intensely amused, 
“ha! ha ! that’s a good one ! why, man alive, 
didn’t I see you cuddling down in the lee of the 
galley, shivering with fear, and crossing your- 
self ; and now do you brag as if you could sleep 
in such hubbub ! That’s a little too much.” 

“You tink I no sleep, sar ? you tink I afraid, 
sar ? No, no, Mistere Eopere, you vere much 
mistaken, sar. I nevare spik any ting, but ze 
truth. Ze capitaine Manoli vill tell you, old 
Nicholas nevare lies ; eh, capitaine ?” replied 
Nicholas with unblushing countenance, and ap- 
I)ealing to the skipper in confirmation of his 
statements. But that sturdy old tar, curling up 
his lip contemptuously, answered : 

“ I never heard you tell the truth !” 

Unabashed, Nicholas was about to reply, when 
Turrcll said, “ There, that’ll do ; no more of 
this, Nicholas ; no one doubts, but what you 
are brave as a lion, but now, you must leave 
your reputation in our care, and go and fetch us 
two flingans of coffee, and then we’ll turn in.” 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


39 


The next morning, Hydra and several other 
islands were in sight, around the northern 
and eastern horizon, while the rocky, but 
indescribably beautiful shores of Greece lay to 
the westward, the rugged mountain crags robed 
in purple and gold, from the rays of the rising 
sun. Tom thought he had never seen a lovelier 
sight, and his heart thrilled with joy, as he 
gazed for the first time on the land so celebrated 
in history, about whose ancient heroes he 
had so often read by the fireside on winter even- 
ings. 


40 


ADVENTURES OF TOM KOFER. 


Chapter III. 



N our last chapter the Katerina was 
in sight of the coast of Greece. A 
succession of baffling winds and calms 
prevented her from making a harbor for 
two days. At last they reached the port of 
Kapoli toward evening, when the wind died 
entirely away, and the sails hung idly against 
the masts. The yawl was got out and the crew 
took turns in towing the brig into port. The 
moon rose as they gradually crept up the silent 
harbor, silvering the battlements of the fortifica- 
tions and robing the stupendous, ramparted, 
citadel rock, called the Palamede, with a snowy 
radiance. About ten o’clock the cable rattled, 
echoing around the sleeping shores as they came 
to anchor ; and, with difflculty restraining them- 
selves from landing at once, our voyagers 
'“turned in.” 

The next morning, early, Nicholas was 
sent ashore to secure horses for their trip, and 
make all needed preparations for journeying to 
Athens, and soon after they followed him, and 



ADVENTUIIES OF TOM ROPEE. 41 

went to the locanda or hotel ; after breakfasting 
they descended to the courtyard of the inn, 
where they found Nicholas waiting for them, 
surrounded by a noisy crowd of idlers, hackmen, 
])oatmen, hostlers, muleteers, and soldiers, all 
vociferating at the same time, with a multitude 
of gestures. 

“Ah, good gentlemen, we shall all be kilt, 
we are all dead men,” groaned Nicholas, as 
Turrell and Tom approached him. 

“Why, is any thing the matter?” inquired 
Turrell. 

“Any thing ze matter, sar? ask all these 
brave men, sar, these peoples of Napoli ; what 
you say, sar, if I tell you ze briganti are in all 
ze mountains ? Ye cannot go farder ; our 
throats vill be cut and our monies vill be taken. 
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-h !” 

“Poh, poll! hold your tongue, you misera- 
ble, chicken-hearted baby !” answered Turrell. 
“Have you procured horses, and why are they 
not here ?” 

“Horses ! Not a horse vill stir out of Napoli 
for less dan von pound sterling ze day I” 

The whole crowd backed up Nicholas’ state- 


42 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


ments with many clamors. ‘‘What,” tliey 
cried, “will the Milordi,” as they called our 
travelers, “venture to travel on such roads 
without paying a good sum for their animals ? 
Holy mother ' preserve us!” and every one 
wagged his head with an air of superior wisdom. 

But Turrell, who thought he perceived in 
all this a very large cat in the meal tub, or in 
other words, a conspiracy to commence extort- 
ing money from them at the outset of their 
travels, took hold of Nicholas, who was short 
and fat, and looking down upon him with a 
threatening eye, said, “ no more of this, my 
man ; there are enough horses in Napoli and 
enough men who would be glad enough to hire 
them to us for a reasonable price ; I give you an 
hour to find us the animals or quit our service.” 

“As you please, sar,” replied Nicholas, 
shrugging his shoulders. “If my masters vish 
to see ze briganti on ze road, vat more sail I say ? 
’tis only for your safety I spik !” 

“Who talks of robbers,” echoed Tom, who 
felt very brave with his revolver under his vest, 
and knew very little of Greek brigands ; “I’ll 
bet we can whip every one of these bragging 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER 


43 


turkey cocks.” At the same time it must be 
confessed, that a slight sensation of dread was 
mingled with his curiosity to have a brush with 
the klefts. 

It is almost needless to say that in ten 
minutes the horses, which had in reality been 
waiting in a shed near by in readiness for the 
clinching of a hard bargain, made their appear- 
ance, the owner declaring that better steeds 
were not to be found in Greece, a statement that 
seemed rather strange after a glance at the beasts, 
which were a long-haired, bony, spiritless, 
insignificant set of nags. On one of them the 
bedding of the party was slung across a pack- 
saddle, and saddle-bags containing the clothing 
and other out-fit of the travelers were thrown 
over the backs of all the riding horses, and soon 
the cavalcade was clattering through the streets 
of Napoli and emerging into the open country. 

Leaving Argos on the left, the oldest ex- 
isting city in the world except Damascus, the 
party' rode on toward Corinth, intending to 
reach Athens by way of the Isthmus of Corinth. 
You will easily find these places on the map. 
After a ride of a few miles they reached the 


44 ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 

ruins of M3xen80, which long, long ages ago 
was the capital of Agamemnon, surnamed the 
King of men, who commanded the host which 
besieged Troy for ten years, as 3mu may have 
read. These ruins are not as beautiful as those 
of Athens, but they are in a more massive, 
gigantic style, and are therefore called Cyclo- 
pean. It may give you some idea of their 
character when I tell 3mu that there is a single 
block of marble there four feet and a half thick, 
sixteen feet wide, and twenty-seven feet long. 
Take a foot rule and measure out a space of that 
size, then compare it with the largest stone 
block you ever saw. How the3^ moved such 
masses in those ancient times is a mystery ; it 
would be difficult enough now, with all our 
modern mechanical facilities. 

After taking a survey of these astonishing 
remains and lunching off some cold chicken, the 
travelers remounted and rode into Corinth that 
evening. At the locanda where they stopped, 
which was a rather mean affair, they ffiet a 
Greek gentleman named Kondopoulos who could 
speak a little English ; he was a member of the 
Greek Legislature and was on his \V^ay to the 


ADA^EfTTUr^ES OF TOAI EOPEE. 


45 


opening of the assembly at Athens. After a 
pleasant chat it Avas agreed that he should join 
their party with his servant, and, having visited 
the summit of the Akrocorinthus, a rock toAver- 
ing eighteen hundred feet above the toAvn and 
croAvned Avith a fortress and the ruins of a tem- 
ple, they all started olf the next morning in the 
best of spirits. As they rode out of the place 
they met a countryman, Avho stopped when they 
came up to him and took out from under his 
capote, and held up for them to see, the bloody 
head of a very large Avolf, which he had just 
killed in the neighboring mountains ; he Avas 
noAv on the Avay to the city to obtain the reAvard 
offered for the head of this devourer of the flocks. 
He said, furthermore, that he had heard that 
there AA^ere klefts lurking on the road. Nicholas’ 
face greAV white as a sheet at this item of intelli- 
gence, and Mr. Ivondopoulos, Avho kneAV pretty 
well the character of Greek brigands, suggested 
that they had better by all means turn back and 
go to Athens by sea or at least get a guard of 
soldiers at Corinth. But Mr. Turrell and Tom 
felt so little anxiety on the subject that they all 
pushed on. They had ridden for five or six 


4G 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


hours without a sign of danger, meeting no 
human being except now and then a shepherd 
in his sheep-skin capote, with a long crook and 
accompanied by his enormous shaggy dog, who 
guarded the flock that nibbled the wild thyme 
on the rough slopes and enlivened the still air 
with the tinkle of bells : on the left rose precipi- 
tous mountains, on the right lay the blue Egean, 
Salamis in the distance, where Xerxes fought 
his famous naval battle, and the mountains of 
Attica looming in the horizon. Having pro- 
ceeded thus far in safety, they began to feel as 
if all peril were passed. 

“ My eye !” exclaimed Tom, who had j^icked 
up that elegant phrase in England, “ isn’t 
this glorious ; and only to think that such 
Scenes should have taken place here ! I sa}^, 
Turrell, this is better than traveling by rail, 
don’t you think — ” 

Tom did not finish his sentence. He was 
interrupted by a voice that cried, “Halt,” and 
immediately after he saw a man armed to the 
teeth step out from behind a rock and point a 
pistol at him, he being in advance, at the same 
time grasping the bridle of his horse and arrest- 


A Sdeprise by Otreek Brigands. — Page 46. 



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ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


47 


ing his progress so suddenly as almost to throw 
him on his haunches. At once Tom drew his 
revolver, cocked it, and clapping the muzzle to 
the man’s head, was about to fire, when Mr. 
Kondopoulos dashed forward and knocked it up 
with his riding whip, saying, ‘‘Are you mad! 
would you have them kill us all I keep cool, — it 
is useless to fight, — you know not ze chariicter 
of ze Greek brigands ! look ; see you not ze 
muskets pointing at us from all ze bushes ?” 

Tom did look, and divined at a glance 
how useless resistance would be. Through the 
dense thickets that grew around the narrow pass 
the muzzles of a score of guns were pointed at 
the party, while those who aimed them were in- 
visible. It was a regular ambuscade, a complete 
trap into which our fravelers had fallen. Had 
they known more of the peculiar nature of bri- 
gand warfare they might have avoided this un- 
Xfieasant adventure. There is very little glory to be 
gained in encountering the robbers of the Levant. 

“ Well for you that the Milordos did not 
fire, or by the Holy Virgin, not a mother’s son 
of you would have escaped alive,” said the 
robber chieftain, still holding his huge pistol 


48 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER 


aimed at Tom, and summoning some of his men 
to advance and disarm their prisoners. 

All the weapons were thus secured, Tom 
having the mortification to see his lovely navy 
revolver, which had cost seven guineas in Lon- 
don, transferred to the greasy belt of one of his 
captors. The robbers then turned olf from the 
main road, and struck right ui^ into the heart 
of the mountains, one of them leading the way, 
and the rest following, single file. Each prisoner, 
for security’s sake, being guarded by an attend- 
ant brigand with a cocked musket. After pro- 
cftcding thus for some hours, slowly picking 
their way along the most rugged paths, up 
which the robbers climbed with the agility of 
goats, they finally reached a small platform on 
one side of which was adu’ecipice, on the other 
a cave. Here a halt was made, and the chief, 
who was named Captain Christo, seated himself 
under a wild olive tree, and invited his prisoners 
to seat themselves beside him on the gnarled 
roots of the tree, bidding Kostee, the youngest 
of the brigands, to bring them cofiee. A fire 
was soon made, the coffee, served up in small 
cups, was speedily prepared, and the captain 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. . 49 

handed around his tobacco pouch. When he 
and his prisoners had taken a few preparatory 
whiffs, negotiations for the ransom of the 
captives were opened. 

It was in vain that Turrell and Tom 
protested and reminded him of their English 
and American citizenship, and that if he harmed 
a hair of their heads or took a farthing of their 
money, dire vengeance would be visited upon 
him ; Captain Christo only smiled benignly, said 
he had heard plenty of such talk before, and 
quietly twirled his mustache. The result of the 
parley was that J^icholas should be allowed 
four days to go to Athens, and return with two 
thousand pounds, the ransom for Turrell and 
Tom, which he was to procure from the gentle- 
men in Athens to whom Mr. Turrell had letters 
of credit. 

“ Of you I shall only demand two hundred 
pounds,” said the captain, turning to Mr. Kondo- 
poulos ; “you are a Greek, and are not so rich 
as these English Milordi, and besides, why 
should I be hard with a member of our national 
assembly ? Am I not also a Greek ? God 
4 


50 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


knows, gentlemen, how difficult it is to accept 
your money, but we must live !” 

One of the robbers then produced some 
rumpled paper from his fez or scull-cap, and 
Turrell and Kondopoulos wrote letters to Athens 
about raising the sums demanded. Nicholas 
and Yorye, the servant of Mr. Kondopoulos, 
were then summoned before Captain Christo, 
who thus addressed them; “I give you four 
days to go to Athens, and to get back here with 
the money. For every day that you delay over 
that time, I shall cut off an ear from one of these 
gentlemen ; when all the ears are gone, I shall 
cut off heads ; and you I will flay alive ; Captain 
Christo keeps his word. Go !” 

Nicholas and Yorye set ^off, the former 
■protesting that nothing should keep him an 
hour behind the time, and perspiring with fear 
at the terrible threats of Captain Christo. 

After these men had' departed on their pecu- 
liar mission, Tom had ample time to realize 
his situation, and truth to say, it did not elevate 
his spirits to reflect upon it. Being held there 
the captive of a company of ruffians on the top 
of a lonely mountain five thousand miles away 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 51 

X 

from his home, was not exactly what he had 
been accustomed to picture to himself as the 
romance of life among brigands. Turrell, being 
somewhat older, took the matter more philoso- 
phically, although it is true, that at first he 
indulged in certain strong expressions, which it 
is unnecessary to repeat. Kondopoulos also, 
having expended considerable breath in railino’ 
at his captors, quieted down and was soon on 
very good terms with them. 

A robber was appointed to watch each of 
tlie captives, but otherwise they were allowed to 
remain at liberty so long as they made no at- 
tempt to stir beyond the plateau in front of the 
cave. Their food was coffee, bad cheese, coarse, 
black bread, olives, wild honey, and once or 
twice a roast sheep, which the robbers brought 
into the camp. In the evening they all sat 
around a faggot fire spinning yarns, playing 
with very dirty cards, sometimes having a little 
row, and then lying on the bare ground, and 
sleeping with a loud chorus of snores, sentinels 
being always on the lookout, day and night. Most 
of the brigands were rather good-looking fellows, 
and all were dressed in the Albanian costum(</- 


52 


ADVENTUKES OF TOM ROPEH. 


a scarlet skull-cap, with blue tassel, a white kilt 
of many folds, leggings and jacket embroidered 
with gold thread, and red shoes or sandals 
bound around the foot with leathern thongs. 
Around the waist they wore a belt in which a 
brace of horse-pistols, an enormous dagger, and 
a tobacco pipe were carried. 

Captain Christo was a man of fifty, tall, 
slender, but splendidly proportioned, with an 
iron-gray mustache, and long gray locks hanging 
down under his fez and curling on his neck ; his 
eye was like a hawk’s, black and piercing, but a 
kindly expression of good humor playing around 
his mouth relieved the fierceness of his features. 
He almost always wore a sheepskin capote, 
usually hanging over one shoulder. He was a 
man of great muscular strength ; more than 
once when they were sitting around the fire he 
would hold his hand out at arm’s length, bid one 
of the band step upon it, and then, without 
rising, and apparently without efibrt, would lift 
him up in the air and throw him sprawling at 
some distance. Like Captain Man61i of the Kat- 
erina, he had fought in the Greek Eevolution, 
and the predatory habits formed at that time had 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROrER. 53 

dung to him and led him to choose the rude pro- 
fession he had adopted. He had many adven- 
tures to relate of his past career, which Mr. 
Kondopoulos translated in his fishion for Turrcll 
and Tom. One of these was so singular that you 
may like to hear it. 

Being pursued once by the Turks, Captain 
Christo was on the point of escaping, when his 
horse sunk in a marsh up to the rider’s neck. 
Drawn from the mire with difficulty, he was 
clapped into a dungeon under ground ; there he 
remained alone, with not a living thing to share 
his captivity, until one eveningdie saw something 
glistening on the floor, and silently approaching 
him, hut it was so dark down there he could not 
make out what it was. Soon the object crawled 
upon him, and he felt the cold, slimy skin of a 
serpent. He thought himself a dead man, hut 
as he did not stir, the reptile crept softly under 
the warm folds of his capote, and went to sleep. 
In the morning the snake uncoiled itself and 
slunk away. This took place every evening, 
until Captain Christo took quite a liking to his 
singular bed-fellow, found a good deal of com- 
panionship in his society, and looked forward to 


54 


ADVENTURES OF T03I ROPETl. 


his visits with impatience. This singular friend- 
ship continued for more than a year, when the 
iwisoner was hauled out of his dungeon and 
allowed once more to breathe the free air of 
heaven. 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


Chapter IV. 

related in the i^revious chapter, Nicho- 
as and Mr. Kondopoulos’ servant start- 
ed for Athens to procure the ransom 
for their masters. Arriving there, the former 
went immediately to Mr. Turrell’s bankers, 
and presented the note he had brought. Tre- 
mendous was the sensation produced by the iiir 
telligence ; all sorts of plans were, as usual on 
such occasions, devised for the rescue of the cap- 
tives, but ended, also, as usual, in nothing, be- 
cause every one knew'That so wily, cautious, and 
unscrupulous were the brigands, that before 
they could be surprised or overpowered by the 
troops, they would murder their prisoners. 
Therefore, the sums demanded wei*e raised, and 
the two valets were intrusted with the money 
in hard coin, gold sovereigns and napoleons. 

But after Nicholas had left the banking- 
house of Messrs. Makroyani & Co., the senior 
partner remarked that he did not like the looks 
of Nicholas, and that it might be well to follow 
him and see that he did not leave the country 



5G 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


with the treasure instead of going to the brigands. 
He was tracked to the Pirieus, the port of Athens, 
and was seen to bargain with the skipper of a 
small coaster to carry him, with the first turn of 
the wind, to Smyrna. Satisfactory proofs of 
his villany having thus been obtained, he was 
arrested. 

Many were the lies he told about his inten- 
tions, many his protestations of innocence, until, 
after solemnly promising to discharge his duty 
without further delay, and being severely threat- 
ened if he failed a second time, he was sent ofi 
with a guard of soldiers, who were to see that he 
proceeded at once to his destination. Some delay 
having occurred in raising the ransom for Mr. 
Kondopoulos, his servant was also somewhat 
tardy in starting on his return to the mountains, 
and the time to which their absence had been 
limited was nearly over, and they had not yet 
made their appearance at the headquarters of 
Captain Christo. 

It may well be imagined how impatient our 
travelers became in their imprisonment. How 
eagerly Tom gazed on the blue expanse of the 
Egean that lay so beautifully before him, dotted 


ADVENTUKES OF TOM ROrER. 57 

with the gleam of snowy sails, and longed to he 
on the deck of one of those vessels, roaming 
again at liberty ; how often his reflections turned 
toward home and all the dear friends there, whose 
thoughts followed him, and wondered when they 
would see him again ; and then his heart sank 
within him as it occurred to him that he might 
perish by the knife of one of these brigands, and 
his mother would never see him more. But the 
nature of youth is ever inclined to be hopeful 
and buoyant, and a hearty meal on the coarse 
fare they offered him, for which the mountain 
air gave him a keen appetite, would banish such 
gloomy reflections for a while, and enable him 
to listen with zest to the stirring tales told by 
the robbers, and translated into broken English 
by Mr. Kondopoulos. 

During the whole of their captivity, the 
three prisoners were never allowed to confer 
alone together, lest, in a language unknown to 
the klefts, they should get up a conspiracy to 
escape. On the fourth day it was evident that 
the robbers increased their watchfulness over 
their prisoners, and doubled the number of sen-' 
tinels stationed at different points to guard the 


58 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPEIl. 


approaches to the plateau, and prevent surprise 
from troops, for time enough had now passed for 
news of the Capture to reach Athens, and for a. 
body of soldiery to attempt a rescue, although, 
taking every thing into consideration, that was 
not very probable. 

As the day wore on without signs of any 
“^one with the ransom, the suspense grew more 
intense. The klefts, apprehensive that they 
might lose the ransom, or that a rescue was in- 
tended, became fierce and impatient ; the prison- 
ers, fearing that the messengers might prove 
false, and leave them to the tender mercies of 
the brigands, found their anger and dread rapidly 
increasing, and, although little was said, all par- 
ties' felt that the crisis was at hand. 

The sun went down behind the mountains; 
the melancholy hoot of the owls was heard here 
and there on the neighboring crags ; the stars 
came out in the twilight sky with the splendor 
usual in that climate ; and the busy hum of in- 
sects gave life to a scene that was otherwise so 
lonely and solemn, as to inspire the beholder 
with awe. As the low night wind went by with 
its soft music, rustling in the dry herbage like 


ADYENTUPwES OF TOM EOPER. 


o9 


the footsteps of passing spirits, it thrilled the 
prisoners with a sense of their uttei'ly helpless 
condition, and with grim forebodings of more 
terrible scenes. than they had yet experienced. 

The robbers lit no fire that night, lest the 
flame or smoke should betray their whereabouts, 
and half their number kept awake to watch ; nor 
did the unhappy prisoners sleep much, and when 
the cold, gray dawn appeared in the east, and 
the mists began to roll up the mountain sidec, 
every one was up and on the alert for the mes- 
sengers with the ransom. 

At sunrise. Captain Christo seated himself 
under his old olive tree, which served him in- 
stead of an audience hall, and summoned the 
prisoners into his presence, each attended by two 
of the klefts. He then addressed them as follows : 

“ Gentlemen, you will recollect that I 
threatened, if your ransom was not brought 
within four da3"s, to deprive you each of an ear 
on the first day, repeating the process until the 
ransom is paid. Ho one can regret more than I 
do that ^mur part of these conditions has not 
been fulfilled ; nothing remains but for me to 
carry out my threat. You can easily understand 


00 


ADYEXTURES OF TOM EOFER, 


that it will never do for me to threaten and not 
fulfill my threats, for in that case we should never 
got a farthing of ransom, and have our prisoners 
thrown on our hands for nothing. As l am dis- 
130sed to deal with you perfectly fairly, and as it 
may he of some importance whose ear is first cut 
off, I have ordered two white pebbles and a black 
one to be shaken in a cap. The one who draws 
the black pebble will be the first to suffer.” 

All the prisoners at once loudly protested 
against these proceedings, and declared that 
they would not stir a finger in drawing the lots, 
vowing, moreover, that they would resist any 
such foul indignity to the last, and calling down 
the vengeance of heaven on the whole brigand 
crew, in no measured terms. 

Exasperated by this resistance. Captain 
Christo lost patience, and laying aside the at- 
tempt at politeness he had so far preserved, and, 
pretending to think the prisoners very unreason- 
able, he cried out to his men : 

“Hark ye, my brave boys, shall these fel- 
lows revile us in our quarters ? Hold them fast ! 
Look well that they cut up no capers, and let us 
at once proceed to business. We’ll begin with 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROFER. 61 

this miserable Greek, this august member of our 
noble Legislature, this contemptible Ivondopou- 
los, who dares to threaten me with the vengeance 
of our good-for-nothing government. We let 
him off for two hundred pounds, the cheat ! the 
beggar ! and now hear him talk ! Here, Leonide, 
did you sharpen your knife, as I bade you last 
night?” 

“That I did, sir!” 

“ Good ! Cut oft* this gentleman’s ear, then.” 

At this juncture, by a sudden and violent 
eft'ort, Turrell sprang from the grasp of his 
keepers, snatched a dirk from the belt of one of 
the robbers, and brandishing it aloft, cried that 
he would bury it in the bosom of the first who 
dared to touch him, and then dashed down the 
mountain, shouting to Tom, “Fly for your life 
and your honor!” 

A score of balls whistled by his ears, and 
a dozen brigands started in pursuit. But, long- 
limbed, lithe, and agile, he might have given 
them a long race, had he not caught his foot in 
the vine-like root of a tree, and fallen headlong. 
Momentarily stunned by the violent shock, be- 
fore he could recover himself, he was overpow- 


G2 


ADVENTURES OF T03I ROPER. 


ered by several of liis pursuers, and brought 
back to the presence of Captain Christo. He 
found Tom and Kondopoulos, who had unsuc- 
cessfully attempted a similar escape, bound, and 
now had his own arms fastened tightly behind 
him with thongs. 

“You thought to escape me, did you? — 
ha! had ha!” yelled the chieftain, his gray 
moustache quivering in his rage, and his fingers 
nervously playing with the amber-beaded rosary 
on which he piously repeated the names of the 
saints. “I advise you to try no more tricks 
' with Captain Christo. I’ll let this pass, for you 
are young, and an Englishman. But come, it is 
growing late, and our task is not yet done. 
Leonid^, to work!” 

Mr. Kondopoulos fell on his knees as he 
saw the glittering blade approaching his ear, 
and cringing and fawning before the old ruffian, 
piteously begged for mercy. The captain, with- 
out replying, pushed him away with his foot, 
and motioned to the band to proceed. In a 
moment Kondopoulos’ left car was shaved from 
his head, and appliances for staunching the blood 
were laid on the wound, which was then bound 


Mr, Kondopoulos pays the Forfeit. — Page 62. 





ADVENTURES OF T03I ROPER. 63 

up with bandages in such a manner as to show 
that the robbers were accustomed to such 
matters. 

Captain Christo then, ordered Turrell to be 
brought forward and served in the same way, 
saying, “You have behaved badly, and shall be 
the next to suffer punishment ; as for the younger 
milordos, this little Ropere, let him have another 
chance. I like him, and perhaps the ransom will 
be here before his turn arrives.” 

Just at this critical moment, when the knife 
was unpleasantly near to Turrell’s head, a pe- 
culiar whistle, three times repeated, was heard 
from the sentinels; Immediately all hands stood 
to quarters, and Captain Christo rose and ad- 
vanced to learn what was approaching, whether 
soldiers or the ransom. Soon a robber rushed 
up with the news that the valets, with the ran- 
som, were at hand. Turrell and Tom felt im- 
mensely relieved, and the chieftain, rubbing his 
hands with delight, said : 

“I congratulate you, gentlemen, on your es- 
cape. You have saved your ears, I have saved 
my money. Legally, I could still carry out my 
threat on your heads, but enough has been done 


G4 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROFER. 


to show that men of our profession are not to he 
trifled with.” 

Soon the servants made their appearance 
with the hags of money. The company then re- 
turned to the audience hall under the olive tree, 
and’, a capSte being spread on the ground, the 
gold was poured out upon it and carefully count- 
ed. The specifled sums proving correct. Captain 
Christo turned to the prisoners, and said : 

“Gentlemen, you are at liberty.” He then 
ordered their horses to be saddled and brought 
for them to mount. He next inquired in a casual 
way what had been the cause of the delay in 
bringing the ransom. Kondopoulos’ servant 
stated the difficulty he had in raising the money, 
which, from the scarcity of wealthy people in 
Greece, it was easy to believe. Nicholas, with 
characteristic fluenc3q had a story to tell about 
the difficulties which had also attended his pro- 
curing the ransom for his masters. But he was 
not to get off so easily for his misconduct. Kon- 
dopoulos’ servant had heard of his knavery, and 
repeated it to the robbers as they were coming 
up the mountain. Infuriated that any one should 
attempt to defraud them of what they chose to 


ADVENT UllES OF TOM llOFEK. (55 

consider their hard earned gains, one of them 
now stepped forward and said : 

“Captain, it’s all a lie! The fellow thought 
he could cheat us, and was going to run away 
to Smyrna with these two thousand pounds ; but 
they found him out and sent him to us under a 
guard of soldiers.” 

“Wretch!” roared CaptaiiT Christo, facing 
the terrified Nicholas with glaring eyes. “You 
thought to rob us of our money, did you ! You 
thought to leave these respectable milordi, your 
masters, in my liaiids, to have their ears and 
lieads cut off, did you ! Villain, take that !” and 
the captain gave him a buffet on the head with 
his tremendous fist that sent him reeling across 
the plateau, and laid him senseless on the ground. 

The horses now appeared, and, with all their 
personal effects, except their arms, restored to 
them, our travelers were permitted quietly to 
depart. Nicholas was left behind, not having 
yet recovered his senses after the blow he had 
received, and no one caring whether he ever 
came back to life again or not. 

Mr. Kondopoulos, with his head bandaged, 
and groaning at every jolt of his horse, was a 


o 


GG ADVENTUIIES OF TOM llOPEIi. 

piteous sight to behold; and although Turrell 
and Tom were glad to escape at last, with their 
lives and their ears, they did not feel particularly 
happy as they reflected on the adventures of the 
past week, and as the party rode into Athens, 
they looked woe-begone enough. “ Curse these 
Greeks !” was muttered between Turrell ’s teeth 
about every other second ; and as for Tom, 
when he finally dismounted at the hotel, he had 
mentally resolved to return home at once. 

This resolution was rather strengthened by 
some letters he found awaiting him from his 
friends in Stoneport, who had heard of his arri- 
val in Liverpool, and that he was to start on an 
eastern tour. One of these letters was from his 
kind father, who said that while he disapproved 
of Tom’s proposed expedition instead of return- 
ing home, still, as he would probably be on his 
way before any letter could reach him to that 
effect, he would say nothing more about his ad- 
verse opinion ; however, as he was unwilling that 
Tom should be entirely dependent for his means 
on the kindness of Mr. Turrell, he had remitted 
a certain sum to Messrs. Baring Brothers, the 
great London bankers, on whom Tom was to 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


G7 


draw for a portion at least of his traveling ex- 
penses. Then followed words of affectionate ad- 
vice, admonishing Tom to avoid temptation and 
mischief, to keep his eyes open, and learn all he 
could about the countries through which he 
passed, and to present the compliments of his 
parents to Mr. Turrell. 

Enclosed in his father’s letter Tom found 
one from his mother, in which she expressed the 
deepest gratitude to God for his very narrow 
escape from destruction, and the fondest solici- 
tude for his future welfiire, and the hope that he 
would soon return to her, and that in the mean 
time he would often write and keep them fully 
informed of his movements. This letter affected 
Tom considerably, and confirmed his intention 
of speedily returning home. 

• What was his surprise after reading these 
letters, to open a third, which was subscribed, 
‘‘Your aflec. friend, Dick Veazie.” Tom could 
hardly believe his eyes, and was almost disposed 
to think it all a dream. What ! his friend Dick, 
whom he thought long ago lost in the ill-fated. 
“Alice,” had he come to life again ! It could not 
b,e possiljle ; and yet there was a long letter from 


(58 


ADVENTURES OF TOM IlOTER 


lihn, in his own hand-writing, and signed with 
his own name. Impatiently Tom ran his eyes 
over Dick’s letter, and felt indeed relieved as he 
read along to find it all true. It seems that Dick, 
waking up on that terrible night when he heard 
Tom’s shouts, rushed out of the cuddy just as 
the “Alice” was struck and cut in two by the 
bow of the “Philadelphia.” An oar, lying on 
the deck of the “Alice,” was caught in his grasp, 
how he hardly knew, in the wild delirium of the 
moment, for he waS immediately sucked down by 
the onward sweep of waters. When he again 
rose to the surface, the oar was still in his hands. 
Being a stout swimmer^ he threw oft' his jacket 
to keep himself up better, and swam after the 
receding ship, which gradually grew dimmer 
and dimmer, until lost again in the gloom and 
mists of a stormy night. He now gave himself • 
up for lost. Death stared him in the face. Ilis 
friends, his cozy home, all the happiness of his 
boyhood days, passed before his e3^es like things 
that he should never more behold. Despair 
settled on his soul, and his heart seemed freezing 
to ice. Then he called to heaven for aid, and, 
spent with swimming, and weary with shouting. 


ADVENTURER OF TOM ROPER. 


G9 


lie clung io his aar and waited foi the wave that 
should engulf him in its cold and fixtal embrace. 

But a change came over his fiite. B.y one 
of those astonishing coincidences, so strange that 
Ave must attribute them to the kindness of a 
Higher PoAver, that oversees and interposes in 
the affairs of mortals, Dick was suddenly struck 
by something hard that almost stunned him as 
it slid doAvn the slope of a rushing billoAV. In- 
stantly he laid hold of it, and found that it Avas a 
large box, or, as it afterward proved, a hencoop, 
one of those throAvn over from the “ Philadel- 
phia.” Small indeed was the chance that in all 
the Avide ocean these tAVO units on its mighty 
bosom should meet as they did. Clinging to 
this, and sometimes resting himsel-f by sifting on 
it, Dick Avaited for the morning. SloAAdy the 
daAvn broke in the east. Black as ink Avere the 
dense banks of clouds in the horizon, brooding 
over the SAvashing surge ; but high up above 
them a Avhite light, something like northern 
lights, gradually became Ausible, until it turned 
to a faint, then a bright red, paling the tAvo or 
three stars shining there, and tinging the crests 
of foam Avith crimson. 


70 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


The day now rapidly came on, but as soon 
as the sun was fixirly up, the clouds closed in 
agaiuy and the wind Increased. Wildly the spoon 
drift or foam from the tops of the Avaves was 
blown through the air. Here and there a 
schooner might be seen, under easy sail, plung- 
ing madly on the long seas ; but Dick felt that 
the prospect of his being discovered in such a 
gale was very small, although, like any one in 
his situation, he did not give up hope. 

In the course of the forenoon a brig- 
schooner, running before the wind, hove in sight, 
under fore-sail, fore-top-sail, and fore-top-mast- 
stay-sail. She Avas bearing doAvn \Try nearly for 
Dick’s situation, and he Avatched her course 
eagerly. Noav rising on the top of a Avave, noAV 
plunging out of sight in the trough of the sea, 
she drcAv nearer and nearer. 

She Avas Avithin a quarter of a mile of him 
when her helm was put doAvn and her yards 
braced around a little, bringing the Avind on her 
quarter, and her head directly toAvard Dick. A 
thrill of joy ran through his frame ; he felt that 
he had been discovered ; to launch a boat Avould 
be hazardous in such a sea ; but she evidently in- 


ADVENTUr.ES OF T03I EOrEE. 


71 


l.encled to pass near him and heave a line over 
for him to catch hold of. And so it piwed. As 
the brig swept by, the captain, standing on the 
bow, threw him a coil of rope. As it flew over 
his head, Dick clutched it violently, and held on 
to it with the gripe of despair, as the onward 
passage of the vessel jerked him from the hen- 
coop and drew him violently through the water. 

In a few moments Dick was going up the side 
of the vessel, hauled in by a number of hearty 
tars, who pulled with a will. 

“That’s it, my brave boy!” exclaimed the 
captain, as he grasped Dick by the hand and 
helped liiin over the rail. “Kow you are all 
right again. Come aft into the cabin, and I’ll 
give you a change of clothes ; and, cook, be 
smart and bring us a stiff bowl of coffee, strong 
enough for a marling-spike to stand up straight 
in it; that’ll be just the thing for this young 
man.” 

“Aye, aye, sir,” answered that colored 
worthy, showing all his ivories as he grinned 
from ear to ear, and reeled oft* across the rolling 
deck toward the galley, while Dick and the cap- 
tain sought the cabin. Being a short* man, the 


72 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


captain’s clothes fitted Dick tolerably well, al- 
though rather loose for him. 

Before long they sighted Boston Light, 
and the gale slackening, the brig ran up the 
harbor, and moored alongside of Long Wharf. 
Dick warmly thanked the captain for his kind- 
ness, stepped ashore, walked across the city to 
the depot, took the cars, and in an hour reached 
his father’s house, and told “the folks” his 
strange, sad story of adventure ; sad, because his 
poor friend Tom was not with him, and was sup- 
posed to be lost. 

All this Dick told Tom in his letter, adding 
that, not having had enough of the sea yet, he 
expected before long to sail with his father. Cap- 
tain Yeazie, for Canton. Tom’s home-sickness, 
his desire to see Dick and all his other friends at 
home, now reached its climax, and he resolved to 
take the next steamer for his home. What 
he finally decided to do must be reserved for our 
next chapter. 


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ADYENTUKES OF TOM EOFEE. 


73 


Chapter Y. 



HE next morning, on looking out of his 
window when he arose, Tom saw the 
Acropolis and the cluster of ruined 
temples which adorn its summit. This glorious 
spectacle, together with the softness of the fresh, 
breezy air which blew through the casement, 
and the sunny blue of the sky, had an exhilarat- 
ing effect on his spirits, and he mentally re- 
solved that he would at least postpone his 
return home until he had visited some of the 
antiquities of Athens. At hreakflist, Tom and 
his companion feasted on fresh figs and grapes, 
cold with dew, large and delicious. Grapes out 
in the Levant are of many different kinds, and 
so plenty as almost to he had for the asking ; the 
figs, as perhaps you know, are covered with 
either green or purple skins, and are pear- 
shaped. Inside they are pulpy, of a scarlet hue 
fading into gold. 

“Well, my hoy,” said Mr. Turrell, “what 
do you think this morning about going back to 
America ? Do you think you can stand it a 
little longer out here ?” 


74 


ADVEN’TIir.ES OF TOM ROFEE. 


“E,eally,” answered Tom, “I don’t know 
jnst now exactly what I shall do. But I’m 
hound to give a look at old Athens before I 
leave it. Too many of the modern Greeks may 
he skalawags, but they had glorious ancestors, 
and before I leave this part of the world, I want 
to see a little of the city of Themistocles and 
Pericles.” 

“All right, my dear fellow, we’ll be oft’ at 
once for the Acropolis. We shall meet with no 
brigands there. I’ll warrant.” 

After breakfast, then, our travelers sallied 
out to see the “lions,” with a cicerone or guide 
from the hotel. Modern Athens is very much 
like an Italian city, and the dryness and warmth 
of the climate allows the people to loaf about 
the streets from one end of the year to the other. 
It is interesting to see groups of indolent but 
graceful men, in red fezes and white kilts, gos- 
sipping by the stalls of the market, or sleeping 
on the sidewalk, and donkeys laden with huge 
panniers of oranges, grapes, and melons ; and it 
is almost startling to come here and there upon 
some time-worn ruin, standing venerable and 
sublime among the dwellings and the people of 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


75 


later clays, to remind us of the scenes and men 
of two thousand years ago. Do you ever think 
how strange it is that the works which men 
make should outlive them so many ages V It 
shows us how frail is our mortality, and yet 
how immortal must be the spirit which can pro- 
duce such lasting effects, and teaches us that wo 
can all have some influence that sliall be felt 
after our life-work is done, and how important 
it is that we should live in such a way as to 
leave behind us only the memory and the in- 
fluence of lofty aims and unselfish lives. If men 
had always dwelt on earth with this great truth 
in view, how different the world would be! 

After a pleasant stroll through Athens, our 
friends found themselves climbing the side of 
Mars Hill by some rude steep steps, much worn 
and broken. This is a low eminence on the out- 
skirts of the present city, formerly called the 
Areopagus. If you turn to the seventeenth 
chapter of Acts and nineteenth verse, you will 
find an account of St. Paul’s visit to Mars Hill, 
and what he said and did there. Here, in former 
ages, the celebrated court was held which tried 
and condemned the noble philosopher Socrates’ 


7G 


ADYENTUr.ES OF T03I EOFEE. 


to (lie because lie was disposed to doubt tlie 
truth of tlie corrupt mythologies of Greece. Tlie 
judges used to sit in marble chairs under the 
blue sky. Yonder, in the cave not tar from 
this hill, Socrates was imprisoned. He was sen- 
tenced to drink hemlock, the ancient Athenian 
mode of execution. Year this cave Tom saw 
the platform called the Pnyx, from wliich the 
orators of Athens addressed the citizens, stand- 
ing in the open air, which was the only kind of 
town hall they needed in that glorious climate. 
On this spot Demosthenes, of whom you have 
heard, delivered his immortal orations. Yot far 
from here, too, is the beautiful temple of Theseus, 
almost as perfect as when erected more than 
twenty-three centuries ago. It was dedicated 
to the hero Theseus. The legend goes that the 
Athenians were obliged to send a tribute of 
youths and maidens yearly to be devoured by 
the Minotaur, a monster who dwelt in a laby- 
rinth in the famous island of Crete. These ill- 
iated victims were chosen by lot, and Theseus 
happening to be present when the lots were 
drawn, offered himself as one of the victims, in- 
tending to fight and destroy the Minotaur. The 


advk:n'tuiies of tom iiofek. 


77 


ship in which he sailed bore black sails, which 
were to be changed to white ones in case he 
should return sucecssful. Across the blue sea 
the galley glided, from storied isle to isle, each 
day drawing nearer to the fatal shore where its 
unhappy cargo would be delivered to the raven- 
ous jaws of the monster. Too swiftly the black 
sails bore the bark along, until one morning at 
sunrise the sun lit the snow-clad slopes of the 
Cretan mountains with a rosy Hush. As the 
victims were borne to the slaughter, Ariadne, a 
fair maiden of Crete, saw and fell in love with 
the manly bearing of Theseus. She secretly gave 
him a thread Avith which to retrace the Avindings 
of the labyrinth. He found, and sleAV the Mino- 
taur, and sailed joyfully for home Ayith Ariadne 
and the youths and maids Avhom his valor had 
rescued from a horrible fate. As the galley 
neared the port of Athens, ringing with merry 
peals of laughter and song, Egeus, the king of 
Athens and father of Theseus, seated on a high 
cliff, Avatched anxiously for his return. But 
Avhen the vessel hove in sight Avith black instead 
of Avhite sails — for they had forgotten to change 
them — the old monarch thought his forebodings 


78 


ADVENTURES OF TOM IlOrEll. 


had proved true that his son had perished, and 
he plunged into the sea to rise no more. After 
him the sea was called the Egean. 

Such was the strange legend of those early 
days which Tom learned about Theseus, the old 
Athenian hero, who is said to have done many 
other useful actions for his countrymen, to whose 
memory, as a demi-god, as they supposed him to 
have become after his death, they erected the 
exquisite temple of which I have spoken above. 

Eroiii Mars Hill, Tom and his friend pro- 
ceeded to the Acropolis, which is a sort of cita- 
del-like hill, around the base of which the city 
is built, while on the summit stand the magnili- 
cent monuments of art which were the glory of 
ancient Athens,* and arouse the wonder of all 
who now behold their majestic ruins. 

When Xerxes invaded Greece, the Athenians 
consulted the oracle at Delphi, and were told 
to seek safety in their wooden walls. After 
much puzzling debate over this enigmatical sort 
of advice, it was decided that the wooden walls 
meant the wooden sides of their ships ; so, in 
llieir lleet the people sought refuge, with all 
their families and portable possessions, and 


/ 


ADVENT UIIES OF TOM IlOPEK. 79 

Xerxes took and burnt the city and its temples. 
When the Persians had been overthrown in the 
great naval fight at Salamis, and the war was 
over, and Xerxes had vanished with all his 
mighty hosts, then the Athenians returned to 
their city and rebuilt it, and in the course of 
years great men arose who incited the citizens 
to contribute money for erecting noble temples 
to the gods. Under Pericles, the Parthenon 
and the other temples of the Acropolis were 
built, the famous Phidias being the architect. 
They were adorned with exquisite sculptures 
representing the mythological legends of Greece, 
and in the Parthenon, which was dedicated to 
Minerva, was a magnificent statue of the god- 
dess, constructed of ivory and gold, thirty-nine 
feet high. This temple, on the whole the most 
perfect building ever erected, remained entire 
for over two thousand years. But two centuries 
ago the Turks made it a powder magazine, and 
when the Venetians beseiged the Acropolis, a hot 
shot penetrated the roof, and the splendid pile 
was divided by the tremendous explosion, which 
left only the columns standing at each end ; but 
•enough still remains to give us some idea of 


so ABVENTUllES OF TOM liOFEll. 

MOuit it must once have been. Near by is a 
smaller temple, whose portico is supported by 
a group of gigantic but graceful female ligures, 
instead of columns. 

Such were some of the many interesting ob- 
jects at Athens which attracted Tom’s atten- 
tion, and made a deep impression on his mind. 
As he strolled about the city, almost every spot 
had some pleasing associations that entertained 
and instructed him. Among the acquaintances 
he made was a Greek family, who invited him to 
attend the baptism of their little boy, an ob- 
streporous elf, wrapped in swaddling clothes, so 
that he looked like an animated stick of wood, 
lie wore on his head a little red cap, hung 
around with coins. The baptism took place in 
the house of the family, all the relations being 
l)resent. A bath tub was placed in the middle 
of the room, and when all were assembled, the 
priest, with his assistants, appeared, heavy- 
bearded and with long hair like a woman’s, 
rolled up and tucked under his black cap. Tie 
was dressed in loose flowing robes, adorned with 
gold-thread embroidery. Chanting some prayers 
ill a drawling, immelodious, nasal tone, he took 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


81 


the squalling, kicking babe in his hands, and 
dipped him three times in the water in opposite 
directions, so as to represent the Holy Cross ; in 
like manner he anointed his head with holy oil, 
mumbled some further prayers, and returned 
the discomfited infant to its mother. The oil 
on his head, according to custom, was not to be 
washed away, but allowed to be worn ofi', being 
considered too holy to be wasted. After the cere- 
mony, little silver coins, pierced with a ribbon, 
were given to the guests, with pastry and con- 
fectionery. 

Having devoted several days to sauntering 
about Athens, Tom was still in a state of inde- 
cision as to what he should do ; whether to re- 
turn home now, or continue his travels. Although 
his sudden fit of home-sickness was wearing off, 
still he sometimes had a sort of twinge of con- 
science that suggested that he had best go home 
and resume his studies, and thus at the same 
time give great pleasure to his parents. On the 
other hand, the novelty of what he had observed 
during his stay at Athens whetted his appetite 
for sight seeing, and made him anxious to see a 
6 


82 


ADVENT UllES OF TOM IlOPEE. 


little more of the world before going back and 
settling down again to his books. 

The day arrived when Tom must decide 
Avhat course to take. Mr. Turrell was to leave 
Athens the next afternoon, and on that day, 
too, the steamer for Marseilles touched at the 
port of Athens. This boat Tom must take if he 
returned now to America. Weighing each plan 
in his mind anxiously, and still no nearer to a 
decision as the hours went by, he was brought 
to a conclusion in the matter by Turrell, who 
rushed into their room at the hotel, his fine face 
Hushed with excitement and enthusiasm. 

“Here’s a go!” cried he. “There’s news 
of a great battle in the Crimea, on the Alma I 
AVe ’ve beaten the Kussians all to flinders ! The 
Allies are in hot pursuit, they say, and I’m off 
to see the fun. You may go home as fast as jmu 
like, but if you want a good time, and sights .you 
don’t see every day, come with me. I’m going 
down to the steamer office to get my ticket for 
Constantinople, and I’ll get one for you, too, if 
you ’ll go.” 

“ Yes, sir ! I guess you wont catch me hold- 


ADVENTURES OF TOJT llOrEIl. 83 

iiig back! I’m your man for any fun I Isn’t 
that jolly ?” 

“ Jolly ! it’s nothing else I And wliat’s more, 
I know lots of good fellows over there who’ll 
lot us bunk in with them, and perhaps some 
poor fellow who ’s lost a leg will be glad to 
sell out. I’ve served in the militia, you know, 
and wont mind a few hundred pounds. If I do 
got a commission. I’ll see that you are all right.” 

Mr. Turrell referred to a curious practice in 
the English army by which officers wanting to 
leave the service can sell their commissions to 
those who wish a good position, and can afford 
to pay for it. 

The battle of the Alma was fought in Sep- 
tember of 1854, the first conflict in which the 
allied French and English were engaged with 
the Russians in their famous advance to the siege 
of Sebastopol, of which, perhaps, you have heard. 

The day following this conference, our two 
travelers might have been seen pacing the 
quarter-deck of the steamer, watching the sun 
set^ over the isles of Greece. The day after 
they sighted the shores of Asia Minor, Mount 
Ida and the site of Troy looming in the distance, 


84 


ADVENTURES OE TOM RORER. 

Troy, that famous city that was besieged for 
ten years, as legends tell us, because Helen ran 
away from Greece with Paris, and took refuge 
within the Trojan walls. 

Then the steamer glided up the Hellespont 
until it reached the narrowest part of the 
strait, on whose opposite sides once stood Sestos 
and Abydos. At Sestos lived a beautiful priest- 
ess of Venus named Hero. At Abydos dwelt 
Leander, a youth by whom she was loved. At 
nightfall she would place a torch in a high 
tower, shining over the rushing waters below, 
to guide Leander, who breasted the waves and 
swam across to see her. The swim across and 
back was not less than six miles, as the current 
would sweep him down so far below the landing 
place. After gallantly crossing the strait many 
times, one stormy night Leander was drowned, 
and Hero, watching anxiously for him, was 
horror-struck to see his corpse gliding below. 
With an agonizing shriek, she leaped from the 
tower and perished. 

Such is one of the many legends that give in- 
terest to the Hellespont. Now there is an old 
castle on each side, and a small, tumble-down. 


ADVENTUr.ES OF T0:M KOrEE. 


85 


forsaken-looking town. Through the port-holes 
of the fortresses are seen the huge muzzles of 
some ancient, curiously-fashioned and enormous 
cannon, from which stone halls are fired. So 
large is the bore of these guns, that a man who 
was about to have his ear nailed to the door-post 
of his shop because he used dishonest weights, 
eluded justice for a while by hiding inside of one 
of these cannon, cuddling out of sight in the 
breech. They are so mounted and constructed 
that they can not be moved, and can only bear 
on any passing ship when it happens to get just 
in range.- An English captain, aware of this, 
thought he could run the batteries^ but by great 
luck a cannon went off, just as his frigate was 
opposite the muzzle, and the huge stone ball 
smashed in the bow of the ship and stopped her 
career. 

While the steamer was lying off the port 
of the Dardanelles, to land and take off some 
passengers, but without coming to anchor, a 
number of boats clustered around the vessel, 
laden with passengers who were going to take a 
deck passage to Constantinople, or with fruits 
and oriental wares for sale. Fast and deafening 


80 


ADVE:MTUnES OF TOM ROPEE 


'was the chattering of many voices, in Greek, 
Turkish, Armenian, broken ' English, Erench, 
and other languages. Highly entertained by the 
novel sight, Tom leaned over the bulwarks and 
watched the shouting boatmen, or gazed upon 
the strange landscape, so different from any 
thing he had yet seen — rickety houses, appar- 
ently tumbling over the water side, roofed with 
red tiles, with tapering cypresses and minarets 
between, and here and there the flags of different 
nations waving over the consulates, while in the 
' distance arose the blue mountains of ancient 
Troy. 

In the meantime the current had been drift- 
ing the steamer down, and the captain ordered 
the engineer to go ahead with the engines. The 
sudden forward movement of the vessel, and the 
turning of the wheels, produced a great com- 
motion among the boats, which separated in 
much confusion and no little clamor from the 
stout lungs of the boatmen. But one boat, 
which was rather in front of the paddle, was not 
lucky enough to get awa}' uninjured. The 
vortex formed by the backward rush of waters 
drew the boat swiftly against the wheel ; for a 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


87 


few fearful seconds the two boys who were in 
the boat strove desperately to shove clear of the 
wheel, and then one of the floats of the wheel 
struck the boat with terrible and resistless power. 
Then another and another mercilessly descend- 
ing, crunched the boat like the jaws of a ifon 
crushing the bones of his victim. A scream of 
agony was heard from under the wheel, and a 
universal cry of horror from all the beholders, 
and then followed a moment of awful suspense. 
Soon splinters and broken oars rose to the sur- 
face of the turbid waters, and after these two 
mangled bodies. 

At once the engines were reversed, but be- 
fore one could recover from the shock, a plunge 
was heard from the bow. Tom, dressed lightly, 
in accordance with the climate, had in a moment 
thrown oft’ all superfluous clothing, and before 
any one was aware of his intention, dove into 
the water and was now seen rising to the sur- 
face and swimming rapidly for one of the poor 
fellows. Being a strong and fearless swimmer, 
Tom speedily reached him, and held him up until 
an English man-of-war boat just going by, picked 
them both up and took them to the steamer. 


ADYENTUTTES OF TOM EOPEK. 


8R 


The Y'ounded lads soon returned to con- 
sciousness, but one had a deep gash in his head, 
the other an arm broken in two idaces. As soon 
as possible they were sent on shore, a subscrip- 
tion for their benefit having been first taken up 
among the passengers to replace the shattered 
boat. 

As for Tom, no one could say enough in 
praise of his gallant action. While the man-of- 
war’s boat that had picked him up was lying 
along side, the lieutenant in charge came aboard, 
and Turrell recognized in him an old friend. 
He approached and accosted him. 

‘‘Hallo, Jack Turrell, is that you?” cried 
Lieutenant Yane. “ What in the world brings 
you here ? You ar’n’t going to join the army, 
are you ? Yery glad to see you, very. Hope I 
see you well. By-the-way, that’s a brave boy 
who jumped in just now. They say he’s an 
American. Do you know him ? Looks like a 
nice fellow. Brave fellows, these Yankees !” 

“He’s my compagnon du voyage^'>'> replied 
Turrell, “ and a very nice fellow he is, too. I 
made his acquaintance in a mighty odd^sort of 
a way. But I’ll tell you all about it some other 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


89 


time ; we shall meet in the Crimea ; you are 
hound there, I take it.” 

“Certainly I am. The “Vixen” is on her 
way to Constantinople and Balaclava with dis- 
patche's. If you are going in the same direction, 
you are just the man I want to see. Come along, 
with all you traps, you and your friend. I want 
to become acquainted with him. No, no, I wont 
take a refusal. Our mess will be just complete 
with two such good fellows. So hurry up, and 
I’ll take you aboard.” 

In a word, sooner than it takes me to write 
it, our two friends, with their luggage, were 
taken on board Her Majesty’s swift dispatch 
boat “Vixen,” and were steaming up the Dar- 
danelles and the Sea of Marmora toward Con- 
stantinople. 


90 


ADYENTUTIES OF TOM EOPEE. 


Chapter YI. 

great city of Constantinople is sit- 
ted at the southern mouth hf the 
rrow, winding strait called the Bos- 
phorus, which connects the Black Sea with the 
Sea of Marmora. The harbor is formed by a 
river named the Golden Horn, joining the 
Bosphorus where it meets the Marmora. Thus 
you see the harbor is grand and capacious, and 
as the surrounding shores are very high and 
steep, and the city is built on the slopes, and 
thickly studded with imposing domes and gilded 
minarets, which are the tall, slender towers from 
which the IMohammedan priests call the Turks to 
prayers five times a day, while the oldest quarter, 
called Stamboul — the ancient Byzantium — is 
also girt with battlemented walls many hun- 
dred years old, the eftect as one first enters the 
port is surpassingly magnificent. 

This effect is heightened by the line-of-battlc 
ships, steam-frigates, and other men-of-war of 
the Turkish and foreign fleets, lying at anchor 
in the stream, enlivening the scene with strains 



' ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


01 


of martial music, or the peals of artillery if it 
is any special occasion, while hundreds of sharp, 
swift caiques or wherries shoot from shore to 
shore, carrying people from one part of the city 
to the other, over the deep blue water. 

From every direction floats to the ear the 
vast confused roar of a great sea-port and me- 
tropolis, giving an air of reality to the many his- 
toric legends and associations which crowd upon 
the mind of the spectator. 

Such was the scene that our friends beheld, 
as the “Vixen” glided past the Seraglio Point, 
so called on account of its royal palaces and gar- 
dens, and the crumbling battlements of the old 
city, and came to an anchorage amidst a multi- 
tude of vessels of all nations. 

“We shall be here several hours,” said Lieu- 
tenant Vane to Turrell and Tom. “That will 
give you time to take a look on shore ; but 
remember to be back by four this afternoon, or 
you’ll be left, sure as fate. Time and tide and 
the Queen’s dispatch-boats wait for no man.” 

So, in one of the numerous sharp, fleet, red- 
cushioned and gilded wherries called caiques, 
our friends seated themselves, and were rowed. 


92 


ADVENTITT7ES OF TOM EOPEE. 


to the landing at the quarter of Galata. Enor- 
mous was the hubbub as they stejDped on the 
dirty, crowded quay, from the stentorian lungs 
of sailors, boatmen, porters, and street criers, 
blending with the bray of donkeys, the shrill 
wh^tle of the steamers, and the creaking of 
tackle-blocks. 

Immediately on stepping on shore, a squad 
of villanous vagabonds, Jews, Greeks and Mal- 
tese, Turks and Armenians, beset our friends, 
yelling in a Babylonish jargon of broken Eng- 
lish and other dialects, offering their services as 
guides. 

“ Mistare ! Mistare ! Mistare ! Mistare !” 
rang from half a score of throats. 

“ This vay ! this vay ! ” 

“You sars ! lookee here ! bono Johnnie !” 

“I sow you ze vay to ze Englis consolato !” 

“ You vant see ze bazaars ? dis vay, sar !” 

“ Ko, no, sar ! dis vay to Misseri’s hotel !” 

“ Me take you ze right road, gentlemens !” 

“Kotake dat road; all dese men rogues: I 
know just ’zacktly vat messieurs vant to see!” 

“Signore, Signore, andiamo a la — !” 

“Mashallah! vy, giddi, vyl” 


ADVENTURES OF T03I ROREK. 93 

“ Tclielebee, tclielebee, tcliclebaki moo, akoo- 
sate !” 

Such was the confused din that rang in the 
ears of the travelers, who found themselves 
almost as comfortably off as if they had raised 
a hornet’s nest about their heads. Elbowing 
their way through the pestilent crowd, they 
picked out one of the least rascally-looking of 
these vociferous good-for-nothings, and bade 
him take them to the Messrs. Hanford, bankers, 
and thence to the English hotel. 

On emerging from the quay into the narrow, 
crowded street, the look-out was very novel and 
striking to a stranger, but at first sight not 
particularly delightful. The second stories of 
the houses always overhung the first stories, 
darkening the street, and the lattices before the 
windows produced a singularly sombre effect. 
The shops or stalls are so formed that the cus- 
tomers stand in the street to do their shopping, 
and this still more crowds the narrow thorough- 
fare that is without sidewalks, so that horses, 
camels, dogs, donkeys, porters, and foot passen- 
gers dodge each other and pick their Avay as best 
they can over the mud-covered cobble stones of 


94 


ADVENTUllES OF TOM ROPER. 


the rough yet slippery pavement. Among the 
oddities which most surprised Tom were the 
enormous trays which street venders carry on 
their heads, laden with piles of cherries, grapes, 
bread, or confectionery, yet so nicely balanced, 
that notwithstanding he is rudely jostled at 
every step in the crowd, the carrier never allows 
the tray to fall, although unheld by his hands. 
But Tom soon found that it required some expe- 
rience to walk the streets of Constantinople with 
safety. While they were proceeding through 
the bazaar or market where trunks of cedar 
and cypress wood are exclusively made, so that 
the air of the neighborhood is strongly scented 
with the fragrance of cedar, Tom, who was 
greatly diverted by the sight of so many joiners 
working in their curious way, was rudely called 
back to a sense of the realities of his situation by 
hearing a loud shout just behind him, “ Saoo- 
o-o-o-l !” 

Hastily looking around, he saw a porter with 
a huge box on his back, the corner of which 
was unpleasantly near to Tom’s temple. Hastily 
jum})ing out of the way, his heel came down on 
something that felt very much like a jelly fish. 


' ADVENTURES OF TOM ROTER. 95 

lie found out what it was when he heard a shrill 
voice screaming “Esh6k !”— donkey— and felt a 
sharp box on each car from a female hand. lie 
had trod on a woman’s foot. Although she was 
muffled like other Turkish women, he could dis- 
tinguish through her veil that, if coarse in her 
manners, she was at least young and pretty, 
which somewhat reconciled him to the harmless 
blows he had received from her feminine fist, 
especially when he took into consideration that 
his heel had no business to tread so bunglingly 
on her foot. 

A little farther on a pack horse splashed 
through a mud puddle and bespattered Turrell’s 
pantaloons in a manner that drew from his lips 
a perfect fusillade of wrathful expressions, and 
convulsed Tom with ill-suppressed laughter. 

After a winding w'alk they reached Hanford 
& Co.’s at last. From the steep street they 
entered a vaulted building, with walls like a 
castle, and cool as a cellar. Proceeding up a 
massive stairway, they passed into an apartment 
with stone lloors and grated windows, where Mr. 
Hanford gave them a cordial welcome to the 
East. Eequesting them to be seated, he sent 


96 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


out for coffee and pipes, and discussed the news 
of the day. After this, Mr. Turrell presented 
some circular notes, which were cashed, and the 
travelers set out to see the Sultan go to the 
Mosque of Beshiktiish, on the Bosphorus. It 
was Friday, which is the Mohammedan Sab- 
bath, and the Sultan always goes in state to one 
of the mosques on Friday noon. 

( They stopped on the way at Misseri’s hotel, 
and took a guide who knew a little more of 
English than the palavering varlet whom they 
had taken at the landing. They then walked 
rapidly through the European quarter, called 
Fera, until on the outskirts of the city, they 
reached the brow of a steep and lofty eminence 
that overlooked the harbor and the vast capital. 
Here Avere horses grouped, saddled and bridled, 
in readiness for passers-by Avho might desire to 
ride. As the hour of noon was now rapidly ap- 
proaching, the travelers mounted, and proceeded 
as quickly as the winding and precipitous de- 
scent Avould allow. On either hand, to the foot 
of the hill, towered vast groves of cypresses in 
dense ranks, tall and straight, and tapering as 
steeples, of a sombre, evergreen hue. This is 


ADVENTUIIES OF TOM IlOFEIl. 


07 


a vast Turkish cemetery, the tombstones being 
seen in great numbers, standing erect among the 
trees, i^rofusely carved and gilded, those marking 
the graves of men being surmounted by a carved 
turban or red fez. 

On reaching the level street, the horses were 
urged to a canter, the drivers following close 
behind, running barefoot at the top of their 
speed, with their shoes tucked into their girdles, 
and shouting to the throngs in the streets to look 
out. Now and then a rabble of wolfish curs 
nmuld make a snarling onset on the cavalcade, 
or some unwary person would be so nearly run 
over that the horses would be held up so sud- 
denly as almost to fall back on their haunches. 

After riding in this way for twenty minutes 
through the densely populated streets of the 
villages along the Bosphorus, the appearance of 
soldiery, ranged on either hand, indicated the 
vicinity of the Mosque of Beshikttish. The Sul- 
tan’s guards, picked men in superb uniform, 
guarded the avenues along which the Padishfih, 
or Father of the Faithful, as the Sultan is called, 
was to approach the mosque. As usual, a con- 
siderable crowd had also collected to see the 
7 


08 


ADVENTUUES OK TOM HOPER. 


pageant, so that the small square on which the 
mosque is situated, was already well lined with 
spectators. 

In order to obtain a nearer view of royalty, 
Turrell dismounted, and Tom followed his ex- 
ample ; then leaving their horses with the 
drivers, they managed to elbow themselves 
through the crowd into a good position. After 
they had stood in this way a few minutes, Tom, 
who was at some little distance from Turrell, 
and was diverted by a dog-fight that was going 
on in the open area, was suddenly made aware 
that a number of Turkish chapkins or rowdies 
were trying to oust him from his position,, and 
looking around, he saw a tall, impudent rasqal# 
leaning with both hands on his shoulders. Plant- 
ing the strong stick he had into the pavement, 
Tom braced himself against the fellow’s efforts, 
who meanwhile was cheered on by his comrades. 
This having continued for a few moments, Tom, 
watching his chance, suddenly stepped aside a 
little, and the rowdy fell forward, hardly saving 
liimself from sprawling on the ground, to the 
immense amusement of the bystanders. 

A Zabtieh or police ollicer marched up, and 


99 


ADVENTURES OF T03t ROPER. 

saying, ‘‘ O son of the Evil One, have you noth- 
ing better to do than to kick up a row when 
the Padishah is approaching?” seized him by 
the collar of his jerkin, dragged him across the 
square, and dismissed him with a cut across the 
shoulders from his corbash, or heavy whip of 
rhinoceros hide. Tom was not again disturbed. 

And now a hum in the crowd, followed by 
an impressive hush, betokened the arrival of 
Sultan Abdool Medjced. lie was a pale, thin, 
handsome man, dressed in plain black, with the 
red fez on his head adorned with a cluster of 
diamonds, and was mounted on a magnificent 
milk-white Arabian steed. He was followed by 
the chief lords of the empire, also on splendid 
Persian and Arabian horses. After spending 
half an hour in the mosque at his devotions, 
which consisted in kneeling and bowing many 
times on a carpet pointed toward Mecca, where 
Mohamet is buried, while the Molahs or priests 
chanted a mournful, monotonous anthem, he 
again appeared and remounted, amidst the 
strains of martial music. 

Abdool Mcdjecd died some years ago, and 
his brother Abdool Azeez reigns in his stead. 


100 


ADVENTURES OF TOM RORER. 

Although not a great man, he was better than 
most of the Turkish monarchs, because he was 
not a cruel man, and tried to do something to 
improve the condition of his subjects. Like all 
the Sultans, he had a large number of wives, 
who occupied separate apartments, closely lat- 
ticed, while high walls were built around the 
gardens where they walked, so that no one might 
ever see them from the neighboring houses or 
hills. He had a singular fear of cats, which was 
a great affliction to him in such a jDlace as Con- 
stantinople, where they are more numerous 
than in any other place in the world. Once 
when he was going to the mosque, he saw two 
cats jump across the street from the eaves of 
one house to the other. Immediately he turned 
his horse’s head, and bade his cavalcade follow 
him by another street to the mosque. Another 
time he was pic-nicing under a large plane 
treo, when, in looking up, he happened to spy a 
cat prowling among the branches. Without 
delay he moved his quarters to the shade of 
another tree some distance off. So great, indeed, 
was this nervous antipathy, that even the pic- 
ture of a cat would annoy him, and he was once 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


101 


known to refrain for a whole day from looking 
at his morning budget of dispatches, because 
they had been brought to him in a portmanteau 
ornamented with an embroidered cat ! 

After the whole pageant had vanished, and 
the crowd had dispersed, our friends went down 
to *'the water-side to the quay of Beshiktjlsh, 
where there was a coffee shop commundiiig a 
beautiful view up the Bosphorus. Here they 
sat and took some coffee and smoked narghiles 
or water pipes. These are glass vases, at the 
mouth of which the tobacco is placed. This is 
a peculiar kind called tumbilk, which cannot be 
smoked without being first moistened, otherwise 
it would cause a violent headache. It is soaked, 
and then squeezed like a sponge, and a live coal 
is then laid upon it. The smoke is drawn 
through water in the vase, and inhaled by 
means of a long flexible tube like the snake-like 
tube of a “ drop-light. ” Perhaps you have seen 
such a pipe in a museum, in which case the 
above description is superfluous. But Tom, who 
had never seen one before he went to the East, 
thought that smoking a narghile was about the 
most luxurious kind of smoking invented, al- 


102 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


though, until he had got the “hang of it,” ho 
swallowed considerable smoke, and tickled his 
throat to an unpleasant degree. I have seen an 
American, green on the subject, set a coflee 
house full of idlers in a titter by his first efforts 
to smoke a narghile, although when one has once 
acquired the knack, nothing is easier. 

This description of Turkish smoking is not 
intended to encourage any one in learning to 
smoke against the wishes of his parents, but 
only as illustrative of an oriental custom, and 
of the incidents that befel Tom Eoper in his 
wanderings round the world. 

Tom was soon diverted by a group of Turkish 
women, with their children, who came down 
to the water to enjoy the afternoon. The 
women had their heads muffled in white, very 
much as if they were bound with grave clothes, 
leaving only the eyes and nose visible, although 
the prettiest ones wore such gauze-like veils that 
but little of their features was concealed. The 
feredges or capes that streamed behind were of 
the most brilliant purple or crimson, and their 
feet were encased in yellow boots that were 
slipped into pointed, embroidered slippers wliida 


ADYENTUrtES OF TOM ROPER. 


103 


are worn in the street. The children had no 
veils, and their hair hung down the baek in two 
or three dozen finely plaited braids. To Tom 
the sonorous language in whieh they chattered 
sounded like a heathenish jargon. 

Before long a prolonged street cry, familiar 
in Constantinople, was heard approaching, 
“ Maha-la-be-ge-e-e-e-e-e !” This sound seemed 
to produce lively interest among the children, 
who ran to their mothers and acted as if they 
were teazing very hard for something. The 
matter was soon explained when a tall man 
came around the corner with a tray on his head, 
which he now proceeded to take down and place 
on a standard which he carried in his hand, 

“ Mahalabege-e-e-e-e-e-e !” 

The cry collected all the children around the 
tray like flies about a lump of sugar, each pre- 
senting a five para or ten para piece. A parlr 
is equal to one mill ; ten paras make a cent. 
The mahalabegee now proceeded to satisfy them 
by serving around, on dishes which he carried, 
a kind of marmalade called mahalabee, which 
was sprinkled with rose-water’ and sugar. Tom 
tried it and found it quite palatable. 


104 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


After sitting awhile at the cotfee shop, watch- 
ing the many sights which have an air of novelty 
to the stranger, the horses Avere led up and the 
party returned to Misseri’s hotel, where the 
friends dined, and engaged an Italian valet, 
named Beppo to accompany them to the Crimea. 
The three then Avalked a few steps from the 
hotel to a convent of Dervishes called the Tekkeh, 
to see their devotions. Dervish is the name 
given in the East to Mohammedan monks, men 
Avho devote themselves to lives of idolent medi- 
tation or penance and self-mortification. Of 
these there are many orders, and they either 
live in convents or wander about as mendicant 
friars, clothed in filthy rags, pests of society. 
Some of these devotees perform strange feats of 
juggling and self-torture, such as apparently 
piercing both cheeks with a sharp iron rod, 
boring their eyes, and otherwise lacerating 
themselves Avithout appearing to produce any 
injury. These exhibitions are very puzzling, 
and at the same time fill the spectator Avith 
horror and disgust. 

Those whom our friends visited were what 
are called “whirling dervishes,” because their 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


105 


distinctive ceremonial consists in spinning 
around on their toes upon certain days of the 
week. The dervishes of this convent perforin 
their whirling on Tridays, which thus gave our 
friends an opportunity of taking a glance at one 
of the oddest spectacles in Constantinople. 

Entering a little courtyard paved with mar- 
ble, the visitors took off their boots and shoes 
at the door of a large hall into which they 
now passed. The shekh or head of the convent 
was standing on a sheepskin when they entered, 
facing Mecca, and then one after another of the 
dervishes, who were clothed uniformly in a tall, 
conical felt cap, a cloak and a flowing skirt 
reaching to the floor, threw aside their cloaks 
and began to whirl around, slowly at first, but 
gradually increasing the rapidity of the motion 
until the heavy skirt spread out like a tent, 
their arms being also outstretched, as if to 
balance the body. The dancing was accom- 
panied by music on kettle-drums and rude flutes. 
This was kept up for some time, some of the der- 
vishes whirling half an hour without stopping. 

Entertained with the singular sight, and yet 
disgusted with a creed that could see religion 


lOG ADYENTUrtES OF TOM ROPER. 

in such a senseless ceremony, our party now left, 
and sauntered down to the quarter of Tope Hane, 
to go on board the “ Yixen.” On the way, at 
the foot of the hill, in a large square Hanked by 
two majestic mosques, and a superb arabesque- 
covered public fountain in the centre, surrounded 
by women drawing water in their earthen jars, 
the travelers were attracted by the beat of a 
tambourine. Proceeding in the direction of the 
sound, they found a throng collected around a 
large brown bear dancing to the music of his 
gipsy keeper, who held him by a chain fastened 
to the muzzle. The bear was clumsily hopping 
about on his hind feet in a manner that was 
evidently more entertaining to the beholders 
than to himself. He gave vent to his disgust by 
an occasional growl, but any other signs of in- 
subordination were usually checked by a jerk at 
the chain which was fastened to the muzzle in 
such a way as to hurt him w^hen pulled. 

However, in spite of the threats and re- 
monstrances of the keeper, some of the idle 
scamps who are always ready for malicious fun 
in the streets of Constantinople as well as in 
American cities, sought to irritate the pooi 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


107 


brute by poking him with a stiek, or setting 
clogs at him. Gradually wrought up to fury by 
his tormentors, the bear suddenly made a dive 
at a dog with one of his fore paws, and tore Ins 
head open. The sight of blood stimulated his 
rage, and, knocking over his keeper flat on his 
back, he beat right and left with his huge 
paws, in the most desperate manner. The crowd, 
panic struck, dispersed pell-mell in all directions, 
tumbling over each other in a way that under 
other circumstances would have been highly 
diverting, and for a few moments Bruin had the 
field to hiihself, and made the most of his op- 
portunit}^. As he could not bite, being muzzled, 
he only had his claws to fight with, but was 
still able to do grim execution. His career was 
at last stopped by a couple of shots from Turrell’s 
revolver, and a deadly thrust from the long 
blade of an Albanian’s dagger. The fight had 
been short, all over in three minutes, but the 
results were tragic, the casualties being two 
boys, one bear, and one dog killed, and one boy, 
two men, and several dogs more or less scratched. 
The density and terror of the crowd had sadly 
aided the bear in his bloody work. 


108 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


After this brief but exciting little episode, 
Turrell and Tom having rejoined each other, 
and after some search found Beppo hiding in a 
neighboring coffee shop, now compared notes, 
and found that they had been considerably de- 
tained by this bear-baiting, and were now in 
danger of missing the boat, for it was already 
ten o’clock by Turkish time, or four o’clock, p. m. 

“ Four o’clock ! do you hear that, Turrell?” 
cried Tom. “ The ‘ Vixen’ was to leave at that 
hour.” 

“So she was, I declare! We must run for 
it, Tom.” 

' And run for it they did, with long and rapid 
strides, which soon brought them to the water. 

“ There she is still, but she’s got up her Blue 
Peter, and they are tripping the anchor, sure 
as fate !” 

Hastily pushing through a crowd of yelling 
boatmen, they jumped into a caique, and 
laying a piece of gold on the floor, told the 
rowers that should be theirs if they reached the 
steamer in time. It was becoming exciting. 
The captain could be seen on the bridge direct- 
ing the engineer, the anchor was atrip, and the 


ADVENTURES OF TOM KOPEK. 109 

paddles made a few strokes forward, then a few 
turns astern, and then, when the neighboring 
shipping was cleared, the “ Yixen ” started 
fairly ahead, and the party in the ca'ique gave 
it up as a lost race ; but the boatmen kept on 
rowing, the caique shooting through or rather 
over the water like an arrow. Nothing could 
have saved them now, if just at this critical 
moment an Austrian bark that was trying to 
stem the rapid current with a light breeze, had 
not been suddenly becalmed, and, losing steer- 
age way, began to drift down pie current, and 
swung against the starboard paddle-box of the 
“Vixen,” carrying away her own jibboom and 
other head gear, and stopping the progress of 
the steamer, which now made stern way to get 
clear of the bark. This unexpected accident 
gave the caique a few spare moments, and before 
the “Vixen” had again started ahead, the 
travelers had the intense satisfaction of climb- 
ing up her side and stepping on deck. 

The boatswain’s whistle now rang cheerily 
on the forecastle, where the crew were “catting ’ ’ 
the anchor, and the “Vixen” glided swiftly up 
the Bosphorus, by palaces and summer houses, 


110 


ADVENTUHES OF TOM ROPER. 


old castles and picturesque villages, terraced 
gardens and vineyards, all bathed in a flood of 
golden and roseate light from the westering sun, 
and appearing like an enchanted land. 

Weary at length of gazing, and with his 
mind bewildered by the various novel sights and 
events of the day, Tom sought his berth, and as 
the “ Yixen” passed the mouth of the Bospho- 
rus and began to pitch on the rising surges of 
the restless Euxine, the dashing of the waves 
against the side of the vessel, and the wailing 
of the night wind in the rigging, lulled him to 
sleep, and his dreams were of home. 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


Ill 


CHAPTER VII. 



OLLO, Tom, you land lubber ! here it is 
long after sunrise, and Sebastopol in 
sight, and you are still asleep ; come, 
wake up, and take a bite of something, for we 
shall soon be in Balaclava harbor, and go 
ashore.” 

Sebastopol be hanged ! what’s the use of 
waking a fellow up out of a good sleep,” replied 
Tom, after considerable shaking, for he was a 
sound sleeper. But aS consciousness returned 
with increasing wakefulness, he suddenly con- 
cluded that Sebastopol was worth seeing, and 
leaped out of his berth ; but before he had fairly 
got on his legs, the vessel, which was laboring 
in an ugly cross sea, gave a lurch to leeward, 
and Tom was thrown across the cabin, the 
water pitcher following suit, and drenching 
Tom’s bare legs, as he tumbled against the door 
of the opposite stateroom, bursting it open and 
pitching helplessly headlong, into a sick officer, 
who wa^ying there. 

“Stoopid!” growled the sick man; don’t 


I 


112 ADVENTUUES OF TOM llOrEll. 

you know bettor, than to be so wonderfully 
clumsy.” 

“I beg your pardon, sir,” replied Tom, “I 
really couldn’t help it.” 

“ Couldn’t help it ! I should think not. How 
long does it take you to get your sea legs on ? 
But seeing it’s you, Mr. Koper, it’s all right , 
say no more about it ; I took you for that blasted 
cabin boy.” 

In the meantime, peals of laughter were ring- 
ing around the cabin, and as Tom reappeared 
with his feet wet, and one of his shins barked, 
Turrell roared and shook until he grew purple 
in the face, and the tears ran down his cheeks. 

“There, there, don’t cry any more, I won’t 
do so again, only don’t cry so, don’t, it makes 
me feel bad,” said Tom, patting Turrell on the 
back with mock gravity. 

After this little farce was over, Tom hur- 
ried on his clothes, swallowed a cup of coffee 
and a piece of “soft tack,” and went on deck. 
The first object to meet his eyes was a row of 
four huge water s^Douts on the weather beam 
whirling rapidly as they sucked up the water 
into the clouds, but looking in the distance like 


ADYENTUllES OF TOM ROFEll. 


113 


majestic columns supporting the sky. They are 
very frequent in the Black Sea. 

But Tom’s attention was speedily called to 
objects of greater interest. The naked inhospita- 
ble cliffs of the Crimea, were close on the lee bow. 
The formidable forts that commanded the en- 
trance to the harbor of Sebastopol, frowned 
grimly on all intruders ; on the. heights in the 
distance, lay white spots like patches of snow, 
lingering on the hillsides in May, which, by the 
aid of the spy glass, were found to be the tents 
of the besiegers. Now and then ]3uffs of smoke 
rose in the air, and were blown into long gleam- 
ing trails, that were swept by the southerly wind 
over the city, followed after a few seconds by 
peals of muffled thunder. The first impression 
produced on Tom by these ominous sounds, was 
one of awe, such as he had never before felt, 
when hearing the roar of cannon. 

The guns that now filled the air with dread 
echoes, were freighted with death ; no harm- 
less wads such as fly from Fourth of July 
cannon, were vomited from these iron throats, 
but shrieking shot and shell, that too often sent 

some fated soul into eternity. War, under its 
8 ■ 


114 


ADVENT UKES OF TOM ROPER. 


best aspects, is a fearful thing, and Torn now 
realized this as never before, and probably never 
since, for, as usual, with increasing familiarity 
the first impression wore off, leaving in its stead, 
as the case might be, feelings of recklessness or 
contempt towards the dangers or the horrors of 
war. As the Yixen neared the very narrow en- 
trance into the landlocked harbor of Balaclava, 
which was the English base of supplies, numer- 
ous transports and men of war might be seen 
converging like the difterent radii of an enor- 
mous fan to the central point, the mouth of the 
port. It was a lively spectacle to see so many 
vessels tossing on the surge, tacking, wearing, 
shortening sail, and going through the various 
evolutions attendant on coming to an anchor- 
age. 

In a short time, a tall slender young man, 
and a youth of medium height, might be seen 
picking their wa}'- slowly among the narrow, 
filthy lanes of Balaclava, a pouch containing 
l)assport, spy glass, etc., slung over the shoul- 
ders of each, and a squint-eyed Italian valet 
following close behind having in charge two 
young barefooted, bareheaded, chattering Tartar 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 115 

urchins, loaded down with the kits of the party. 
The narrow streets were crowded with Turks, 
Tartars, red-coated soldiers, swaggering man- 
of-war’s-raen in wide pants and tarpaulins on 
the back of their heads, swearing officers, horses, 
mules, donkeys, camels, and dogs mingled in a 
strange medley. After much palaver, Turrell 
learned that his friend. Colonel Sir Perry Wyld, 
was stationed with his regiment on the extreme 
right of the English position, where they were 
just commencing siege operations against Se- 
bastopol. By this time it was afternoon, and 
as no horses were procurable, our party dined 
witn some officers who fell in with them, and 
were disposed to treat them with civility. They 
“bunked in” that night, on the dirty, flea- 
covered floor of one of the hovels of Balaclava, 
and did not require the reveille next morning 
to call them abroad, so glad were they to escape 
from their quarters. 

After almost superhuman exertions, two sorry 
looking nags, and a sorrier mule, were secured, 
and the three started for the camp. Colonel 
Wyld was at last found, after a wearisome ride, 
that was frequently interrupted by the dial- 


116 ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 

lenge of sentinels and often intervening ruts and 
mud holes. Having ascertained that a number 
of vacancies had been made in the regiment, by 
the battle of the Alma, Turrell, after a little 
cordial preliminary talk, asked Colonel Wyld, 
regarding the possibilities of his securing a com- 
mission in the regiment. After a few moments’ 
consideration the latter assigned him to a vacant 
captaincy, which he could hold until the colonel 
could communicate with the captain, who was 
lying severely wounded in the hospital, and, as 
it was understood, would be glad to sell out his 
commission. 

And now behold Captain Turrell and Tom, 
snugly settled in a tent of their own, having for 
comrades the remaining commissioned officers of 
the company. The occupants of the tent slept’ on 
boards laid on the ground, wrapping themselves 
up in their india rubber coats and blankets, 
those who could manage to get a board or two, 
and a little straw pr hay to lay under, being 
considered in luck. The “traps” filled up 
every spare corner. On the tent pole hung 
swords, ))elts, shakos, haversacks, and all the 


A7)VEXTUr.ES OF TOM EOFEE. 


117 


odds and ends wliieb go to make np tlic furni- 
ture of a tent, during a siege campaign. 

In the evening it was jolly when, off duty, 
the occupants and others who might “drop in,” 
used to lie around on the earth floor, wherever 
they could find room, smoking Turkish pipes, 
spinning yarns, or having a rubber of whist by 
the light of a tallow candle stuck into the mouth 
of an ale bottle, while the deep roar of a cannon 
or the crack of a sharpshooter’s rifle was heard 
blending without, with the cry of the sentinels, 
“ all ’s well, number one !” “ all ’s well, number 
two !” “ all ’s well, number three !” 

It was not so agreeable when Turrell had to 
spend the night on guard, in the trenches or on 
picket. Trenches was the term applied to all 
the works thrown up by the besiegers, although 
strictly applicable only to the parallels, by which 
the besiegers slowly approached their siege guns 
closer to the enemy’s lines. It was trying and 
exhausting work to spend the long, weary, 
chilling hours of night in the muddy, bleak, 
wind-swept earth\^^brks, too often, also, ui^der fire, 
for although these earthworks were considera- 
ble protection to those immediately behind them, 


118 


ADVENTURES OF TOM RORER. 


still shells would occasionally fall unpleasantly 
near. It was, howewer, comparatively easy to 
dodge them, for their course could he traced by 
the lighted fusee, as they flew through the air, 
and if they fell close by, all who were in the 
vicinity would drop on their faces and usually 
escape the explosion. But round shot and rifle 
bullets were not so easily avoided, and in the 
day time if a person I'aised his head above the 
ramparts, a shower of balls whistled by, and 
the chance of getting off without a shot through 
the head was small, while one was always liable 
to be hit by a stray ball at night. An eccentric 
Englishman who lived in London took a notion 
to go to Sebastopol, to see the trenches. After 
a voyage of five thousand miles, he reached 
Balaclava, landed, and immediately rode up to 
Sebastopol ; when arrived at camp, he desired to 
be shown at once to the trenches. After being 
in vain warned of the danger, he was taken to 
the advanced posts, and before his guides knew 
what he was about, he put his head above the 
works t(5 have his look at Sebastopol. A swarm 
of balls buzzed around his ears like a nest of 
angry hornets. He dropped his head in a 


ADYENTLTKES of tom foper. 


119 


twinkling, said not another word, but rode 
directly back to Balaclava, took a steamer for 
London, and left the same day. He had seen 
enough of the trenches to last him for the rest 
of his life. 

After a night on duty. Captain Turrell would 
return to his tent all fagged out, swallow a cup 
of coffee, or a draught of brandy or rum and 
water, and throw himself on his pallet and take 
a sound sleep. Tom, in spite of the hardships 
of those in the service, was very desirous of 
getting some position, both because he disliked 
to be a mere looker on, and because his super- 
abundance of courage and the uneasy restless- 
ness of youth urged him on to the excitement of 
action and adventure. 

But Turrell strongly objected to this. “No,” 
said he to Tom, “you must not run any 
unnecessary risks. I know just how you feel 
about it ; I should think less of you if you did 
not have a kind of enthusiasm for this sort of 
thing, at least when you are in the midst of a 
campaign. No fellow with the right stuff in 
him but takes to adventure as a duck does to the 
water. But then, you know, it doesn’t follow 


120 


ADVENTURER OF T0:M ROPER. 


that we must always indulge our inclinations, 
my dear fellow, and it does us lots of good, 
sometimes, to control ourselves ; and in addition 
to this, you have parents at home who, I dare 
say, would forbid your taking to fighting unless 
it were absolutely necessary, and it would be 
wrong while you are with me, for you to do any 
thing that would go so entirely counter to their 
feelings ; and as you are not an Englishman but 
an American, there is all the less reason why 
you should go to putting your head in danger 
for the British Lion.” 

“ But — ” Tom tried to reply. 

“There’s no but about it. I’m saying 
nothing to you but solid reason. Fancy what 
your mother would say, if she heard that you 
were killed by one of these miserable Russian 
balls ! FTo, no ! you must keep shady a little 
longer ; and then, if this siege comes out all 
right, and I’m alive, we’ll go off again for India. 
In the mean time, you stay here, as long as j’ou 
like to put up with our camp grub, and we’ll 
hope for a speedy victory. Hip, hip, hurray !” 
Whereupon, Turrell tossed up his foraging cap 
in the air, and gave Tom a poke in the ribs, that 


ADVENT IIP. F-S OF TO-M POFEU 


121 


brought back his good humor in spite of him- 
self. 

“By the way,” continued Turrell, “I think 
I heard you say that to-morrow is your birth- 
day. That’s gay, for we don’t have many gala 
days here. We’ll have a regular banquet for the 
occasion ; it’s so easy, you know, to get all we 
want here ! Beppo, you lazy dog !” 

“Here, sir!” responded that entertaining in- 
dividual, looking into the tent with coat off 
and shirt-sleeves rolled up, and touching his fez 
by way of salute. 

“Ah, Beppo, you are on hand, for once, 
are you ? Kow, look sharp I To-morrow is 
]VIr. Roper’s birth-day, and mind now, we shall 
expect the best dinner you can get up for our 
mess.” 

With a shrug of the shoulders, and a grimace 
on his face, Beppo pointed significantly to the 
bag of biscuit, and the old kettle with holes 
pierced in the bottom, which was the nearest 
approach to a furnace that Turrell’s mess could 
furnish. 

“ AVell, do the best you can, Beppo, we won’t 


122 ADYENTIJEES OF TOM EOPEK. 

expect too much from you,” said Turrell ; while 
Tom cried, 

“I’m sure I’m greatly obliged to you for re- 
membering my birth-day, but I should decline 
putting you to the trouble of celebrating it, if I 
didn’t have the greatest curiosity to see what 
sort of a banquet, as you are pleased to call it, 
our mess can get up within hail of the trenches 
around Sebastopol. You may depend upon my 
doing justice to whatever Beppo lays before us, 
for one does at last get tired of even hard tack 
and salt junk — and not much of that either.” 

Tom alluded to the notoriously inefficient 
way in which the English commissariat, or de- 
partment of supplies, was conducted — far worse 
than in our own army, or even with the French 
allies who were with them at Sebastopol. So 
badly were these matters attended to, that offi- 
cers as well as privates were often in great straits 
for both food and clothing, and enormous incon- 
venience and suffering were the consequence. 

But Beppo, although a thieving wretch, was 
also a capital cook, with many resources at his 
command, so that he had a great reputation 
in that part of the camp as a wielder of the 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


123 


chopping-knife and the pepper-box. It is hardly 
necessary to say, after this, that Tom’s birth- 
day dinner was in its way a decided success. 

The entertainment opened with a very tough 
piece of roast beef, which had probably been 
cut off from the haunches of some old buffalo 
that had fallen by the roadside, worn to leather 
by pulling Lancaster guns to “ the front.” But 
the party did excellent justice to this dish. 

“ And now then, Beppo, for the next course I” 
cried Turrell. 

A goose, savory as ever graced the golden 
platter of a royal table, was brought in by Beppo 
on the tin cover of his kettle, and laid on the 
floor, with an air that seemed to say, Here, 
gentlemen, you see what genius under difficulties 
can achieve in the cooking line.” 

“But isn’t this glorious!” cried one and 
another, as they gazed enraptured on the unac- 
customed sight, and inhaled the savory fumes. 

“ Beppo, you are a regular brick !” said Tom, 
in a state of ecstacy ; “this is the noblest bird 
I ever set eyes on, not excepting the American 
eagle I” 

“ He would be a rather tougher fowl to carve, 


124 


ADVENTURES OF TO:Nr ROrER 


I think,” replied Turrell, as he cut through the 
tender joints of the goose. “Beppo, you deserve 
a half holiday for this little treat. But tell us 
where you found it ; perhaps we can find some 
more like it.” 

“ Oh, I found him in Balaclava ; I pay von 
gold suvrain for him.” 

“ The dickens you did ! I’ll warrant it cost 
you nothing, and that you put the money in 
your own pocket.” 

At this moment, the clanking of spurs was 
lieard, and a tall cavalry officer, in undress uni- 
form, and with enormous whiskers, sauntered 
along and looked into the tent. “Ila ! beg your 
pardon ; I see you are at dinner ; hut I thought 
I detected the fragrance of roast goose — takes 
me to find out such things — and, as the article 
is scarce in these diggings, I wanted to assure 
myself that I was not dreaming. Ah, once I 
had a goose — a nice, plump goose — for which I 
had prepared my mouth, and destined to whet 
my grinders upon this very day, hy George ! But 
it is gone, never to return ! Nevermore shall T 
see thee, fair fowl, with all thy lovely charms ; 
snatched from my raptured arms hy some un- 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


125 


mannered wretch, who, once I see him, is con- 
demned to feel the weight of this heroic steel !” 

“Come in, come in, Fitzro}^, don’t waste 
your rhetoric on the desert air !” roared Tur- 
rell. “ There’s goose enough left for a good fel- 
low like you ; and between you and me, I suspect 
that the goose that was lost is found. Two geese 
in our cariip at once, is next to impossible, and 
Beppo is a clever thief as well as a good cook.” 

Beppo was now called in, and a lively cross- 
questioning soon brought to light the fact that 
the goose was in Fitzroy’s tent the day before, 
from whence Beppo had abstracted it when 
prowling around the camp. Fitzroy distinctly 
remembered seeing Beppo talking Avith his own 
cook. This discovery gave additional zest to 
this novel entertainment, and Beppo was dis- 
missed, with a sound warning to toe the mark 
in future, and meantime to cook the coffee Avhich 
was to be taken after dinner. It Avas prepared 
in the most primitive Avay, after roasting, by be- 
ing placed in a stone that was slightly holloAV, 
and crushed by a forty-tAVO iiound shot rolled over 
it. It Avas however none the less favorably re- 
ceived by the party, who pronounced it capital. 


126 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


But Tom’s birth-day was not to end with- 
out a pleasant surprise. lie had just tucked 
himself up in his blanket, and was preparing to 
go to sleep, when Turrell, who had been over to 
the headquarters of the regiment, came in and 
tossed him a packet of letters from home, which 
had just been forwarded from Constantinople by 
Hanford & Co. Eagerly did Tom snatch up the 
precious packet, and tear open the envelopes. 
Thankful was he to learn that all were well. 
His mother, as usual in her letters, said she 
hoped he would take good care of himself and 
keep out of danger ; a caution which, under the 
circumstances, was very timely. 

There was also a short letter from Dick 
Yeazie, in which he stated that in a week he 
hoped to sail with his father in the ship Union 
for Canton. His mother and his sister Alice, 
perhaps, would accompany them. Dick then 
proceeded to apologize for writing so briefly, on 
the plea that Alice was teasing him by looking 
over his shoulder and trying to read what he 
was writing. To this there was a, postscript ii^ 
a feminine hand, saying, “ This is a great fib ; 
Dick is lazy at writing, as you know, so he triea 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


127 


to make out that I am teasing him, as if I had 
nothing better to do. Ma and I are going too, 
next week, to China. Perhaps we shall all meet 
somewhere in the East Indies ; but you have 
seen so many new sights lately, I suppose you 
don’t care so much for the folks at home. — 
Alice Y.” 

Tom read parts of Dick’s letter over several 
times, until his candle grew low in the bottle, 
and Turrell quizzingly asked him what made 
him “ study that piece of paper so long.” Toni 
blushed, muttered some indistinct expression, 
and dropped off into a broken, uneasy slumber. 

Early in the morning, Tom was wakened 
by the roll of drums and the squeaking of the 
Highlanders’ bagpipes, calling the soldiers to 
arms. The Kussians, it seems, had sent out a 
strong force to surprise the allied army in the 
rear. Several batteries held by Turkish troops 
were captured, hut the coming up of the English 
and French to the rescue, caused the Kussians 
to retreat in turn ; and then followed the most 
thrilling episode in the Crimean war, the charge 
of the Light Brigade of cavalry. Lord Raglan, 
the one-armed veteran who commanded the 


128 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


British army, sent an order which Was misun- 
derstood, and in consequence the so-called Light 
Brigade, numbering little over six hundred men, 
charged the whole Kussian army. It was a 
fool-hardy and useless exploit, and the heroes 
who performed it saw that there had been some 
blundering in the orders given, but it was 

“ Theirs not to make reply, 

Theirs not to reason why, 

Theirs hut to do and die, 

Into the valley of death 
Rode the six hundred.” 

If you want to have some idea of this terrilic 
fight, read, if you have not already read, Ten- 
nyson’s famous ode on this subject, from which 
the above lines are taken. Less than two hun- 
dred of the immortal six hundred returned. 

From a height Tom saw the whole affair with 
intense interest, not the l^ss because he had 
already made the acquaintance of a number who 
were engaged in the combat. After the battle, 
when the Kussians had retired, he accompanied 
the parties that were sent to bury the dead ; and 
a melancholy spectacle, that made him shudder, 
were the stiff corpses, lying in all postures — 
some terribly mangled, others, except for the 


» 








ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


129 


pallor of the face, apparently in a natural slum- 
ber. He came across one body that had thirteen 
'lance wounds. With a sudden faintness, he 
turned away his eyes from the horrible sight, 
only to see instead a form that was too familiar. 
There, on the trampled turf, one hand laid on 
his breast as if to staunch the blood that had 
burst from a lance thrust that had pierced it, 
the other convulsively clasping the hilt of his 
sabre, lay the handsome but lifeless body of 
Eitzroy, who but a few hours since had been 
joking at Tom’s birth-day feast. Stooping 
down, Tom felt of his flesh to see if life had in- 
deed fled. Marble is not more cold than was 
that insensible form. As Tom tore open the 
blood-clotted uniform, he found, next to the 
heart, the miniature of - a lovely girl, and he 
sighed when he thought what sorrow would dim 
that fair face when tidings reached her. of the 

battle of Balaclava. 

9 


liiO ADVENTURES OF TOM ROrEK. 


Chapter VIII. 

5th of November came, and brought 
:h it the roar of artillery and the 
ling fire of musketry. Turrell’s tent, 
where Tom was quartered, was in the camp of 
the second division, on the right of the British 
lines, and not very far from the trenches. Tur- 
rell was on duty the previous night, and had 
not yet returned, when Tom was rudely awa- 
kened, while it was yet dark, by the deafening 
sound of a battle opening alarmingly near to 
where he was lying. Leaping up, he hastily 
pulled on his boots and trowsers, and stepped 
outside the tent to find out what was going on. 
It was a raw, chilly morning, and a drizzling 
rain made the grey dawn still more dismal and 
ominous ; but this rendered brighter the fitful, 
lurid lightning of the battle, flashing angrily 
through the gloom. 

Nearer and nearer approached the din of 
the conflict. Now, the roar of cannon broke on 
the ear — and anon, in a momentary lull, the 
dropping fire of rifles— followed by the trenien- 



ADVENTURES OF TOM RO?ER. 


131 


clous volleying crash of lumclreds of muskets, 
discharged together ; a sound which, once heard, 
is never forgotten. The iron hail soon began to 
lly over the camp and riddle the tents. A shell 
shrieked over Tom’s head, and hurst a few rods 
beyond ; and when he returned to the interior 
of his tent to finish dressing himself, a round 
shot tore through the canvas. 

“This is no place to stay in, that’s cer- 
tain,” said Tom to himself, as he completed his 
hurried toilet, and prepared to leave the tent. 
Ills departure was accelerated by a shell which 
fell exactly on the spot where he had been sit- 
tiiiiT. Tom threw himself on his face, and 
awaited the explosion as coolly as consistent 
with the circumstances ; but, from some fault 
in the fuse, the shell failed to explode — and 
after a few moments, Tom rose and began to 
think about what was to be done next. From 
his position he could not discern distinctly 
whether the enemy were not also in the rear as 
well as the front. This consideration, together 
with a sort of natural aversion to showing the 
white feather, by seeking a place of safety, and 
a strong curiosity to get some view of the battle, _ 


132 


ADVENTUllES OF TOM ROPER. 


led him to take a few steps towards the trenches. 
Some of the wounded who could walk were now 
hobbling to the rear ; and this suggested to him 
that he might at least be of some service to those 
who fell. Perhaps poor Turfell himself, who was 
in the midst of the conflict, might need his aid. 

As Tom was thus wavering in his mind, un- 
decided what course to take, he was gradually 
drawing nearer the scene of action, until, before 
he was aware, on climbing a little knoll, the 
dread spectacle became visible — at least so mnch 
of it as could be distinguished through the mist 
of morning and the smoke of battle. 

The Kussians had been busy all night pre- 
paring for this attack on the English lines. At 
midnight the sound of bells could be heard in 
the besiegers’ camp, floating up with a mourn- 
ful, muffled peal, through the ravines, from the 
streets of the beleaguered town. But the sentry, 
on his lonely round, had so often heard that sound 
at night, that he paid no attention to it now. 
He knew not that on this particular night, when 
the rain was falling, and mysterious gloom hung 
over friend and foe, fanatical priests were in- 
citing the ignorant, superstitious Kussians to 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 133 

go forth to overthrow the heretical allies, as 
they called them, -while their officers also plied 
them with rum and rakee to stimulate them for 
the approaching battle, from which so many, 
alas, would never return. But towards morn- 
ing, the troops, division after division, marched 
silently out of Sebastopol, up the ravine of Ink- 
erman, and thence up the slope vdiere the Eng- 
lish advance posts were stationed. Then the 
rumbling of cannon wheels gave the alarm, and 
soon after a cloud of skirmishers drove in the 
pickets. The first attack of the Russians was 
on the second division of the English army, to 
which Captain Turrell belonged, which accounts 
for the circumstance that their camp was rid- 
dled with shot, and that Tom had been so near 
the scene of action. Almost before he was 
aware, Tom found himself near a battery, which, 
from a small eminence, was blazing away at the 
enemy, who just at this time were rather below 
it, massing for a charge. Perceiving that sev- 
eral of the company which manned the guns 
had already been killed or wounded, he asked 
the officer in charge if he could be of any use. 
As Tom, in the hurry of leaving his tent, had 


134 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


donned a shako instead of his own cap, the 
officer probably mistook him, in the confusion 
and smoke, for a soldier, and replied, — 

“Yes, yes, that you can my hoy ; you may 
serve ammunition to the gun yonder.” 

Accordingly, Tom attached himself to that 
gun, and was soon well begrimmed with powder ; 
nor was it long before his courage was put to 
the test. Large and small shot were continually 
whizzing by ; but as the moments passed with- 
out aceident to himself, Tom lost in some degree 
the nervous feeling which at first thrilled him 
when a bullet would whistle by his ear — or 
rather he grew reckless — the unnatural excite- 
ment of the occasion operating on him some- 
what like intoxication. But now, danger grew 
nearer and more deadly. A heavy column of 
the enemy, detailed to carry this battery, was 
moving towards it in dense masses many files 
deep. This was the Eussian mode of attack, as if 
they would carry their point b}^ the sheer weight 
of physical force. But while this plan may some-, 
times be of advantage, it exposes an attacking 
party to enormous slaughter ; and so it proved 
in all the battles of the Crimean campaign. 


ADVENTURES OF TOM RORER. 135 

Steadily the hostile ranks approached the 
battery. A discharge of grape seemed not to 
check their progress. They would immediately 
dress up the broken lines, and keep on with 
fixed bayonets. As the Eussians were all clothed 
with low caps, and in gray overcoats reaching 
down to the feet — the officers being undistin- 
guishable from the privates except by a small 
strap on the shoulder — the advancing column 
presented an unusually solid and formidable 
appearance. 

Terrible and absorbing as was the excite- 
ment of the occasion, and important as it was 
to beat back the foe, Tom could not resist a 
thrill of intense horror when a discharge of 
grape and canister was hurled into the approach- 
ing column but a few yards distant, so near that 
he could distinguish the features of the men, and 
hear above the din of the conflict the shouts of 
the officers urging them on. As the veil of 
smoke cleared up a little, he could discern a 
great gap in the column that had just looked 
so grim and dense ; while men who, but a few 
seconds before, stood before him strong and 
sturdy, lay stretched on the ground, dying and 


136 


ADYEKTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


dead. They had gone down like ten-pins in a 
bowling alley. Again the thinned ranks were 
reformed, and urged on by threats and en- 
treaties. Again they were thrown into disorder 
by the storm of shot screaming through them. 
But fear seems to be unknown to the Bussian 
soldier ; or, rather, the}’’ have a sort of brute 
courage, and a 'military discipline, that render 
them apparently unconscious of danger ; and 
so the gray masses slowly but steadily marched 
up to the muzzles of the guns, bayoneting the 
gunners, and capturing the battery before the 
artillery men could limber up. In those brief 
but terrible moments, Tom was conscious of 
drawing his revolver and firing it several times ; 
and then he became insensible. When he came 
to again, he found himself lying on the ground. 
At first he lay quiet, as if in the sort of half- 
conscious state of one waking out of a long 
sleep. But soon a sharp pain in his head caused 
him to put his hand there, and then he found a 
severe bruise near the temple, which had been 
bleeding, but was now plastered over with blood 
and hair clotted together. The hurt had evi- 
dently been -caused by a blow from a clubbed 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 137 

musket, and might have proved fatal had its 
force not been partially broken by his shako. 

On attempting to rise, Tom now also became 
aware that his left arm had been scratched 
by a bullet, near half way between the elbow 
and the wrist. Intense pain, or vertigo, made 
his head wdiirl whenever he moved, so he lay 
still for awhile. Then he contrived to sit up, 
and take a survey of the field. The tide of bat- 
tle had again swept over him, and English and 
French reinforcements had recaptured the bat- 
tery, and driven the Russians back. Even from 
the sand-bag battery, defended by the Guards 
with extraordinaiy resolution against frightful 
odds, the enemy had been forced to retire, leav- 
ing fifteen hundred corpses before that battery 
alone, and the din of the conflict was now grow- 
ing fainter in the distance. All around where 
Tom was lying, were the sad evidences of 
slaughter. Men and horses were scattered 
thickly about, lifeless or desperately wounded — • 
some groaning, others crying for water — for the 
fever of the wounds caused intense thirst. That 
he was alive, seemed to Tom almost miraculous. 
Several balls had riddled his clothes without 


338 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


touching him, besides llie one that had hurt his 
arm. Kear to Tom lay a little drummer hoy, 
’vvhom he had often noticed on parade, or sporting 
about the camp at evening, and had taken a 
great liking for his quips and pranks. Now, 
with his drum shattered by his side, a hall 
through his thigh, and an ugly bayonet thrust 
in his breast, the poor lad cried for drink in the 
most piteous accents. By great good luck, Tom, 
before leaving the tent in the morning, had put 
in his coat pocket a flask of brandy which he 
saw lying on Turrell’s cot, evidently forgotten 
by him when going to the trenches the previous 
night. By moving slowly, Tom succeeded in 
reaching the boy, and offered him the ffask. 
With a look of gratitude, the dying boy sought 
to swallow a few drops, but the exertion was too 
great ; the flask fell from his failing grasp ; and 
with that final effort, the blood again burst from 
his mouth, and with a gurgling sound in the 
throat, little Sandie’s suffering came to an end, 
and soon the burying party took the mangled 
body and threw it into a common grave with 
many other corpses. Such is too often the fate 
of the soldier-boy in time of war. 


Tom and the Wounded Drummer Bov. — P age 138. 







t 


ADA^ENTUr.ES OF TOM EOPEE. 139 

Tom now did what it had not occurred to 
him to do before, he took a draught from the 
flask himself, and found a temporary relief, 
although, I am glad to say, that, on ordinary 
occasions, he never touched spirits. The faint- 
ness caused by his hurts had been increased by 
the circumstance that he had eaten nothing for 
nearly twenty-four hours. With the support of 
a broken musket he picked up, he was now able 
to make his way to the tent, where he found 
Beppo in a state of excitement over the confusion 
made in his department of tin pans and kettles by 
a shell, which had exploded near by, and knock- 
ed things into smithereens. Too fatigued to go 
in search of a surgeon, or keep awake to learn 
whether Turrell were alive or dead, Tom hastily 
swallowed a piece of raw pork and a sea biscuit, 
which had luckily escaped the general destruc- 
tion, and threw himself on his couch and speedily 
forgot his x'>a'ins and aches for a while in sleep. 

He was awakened by the sound of voices in 
the tent. How long he had slept he could not 
tell, but it was now broad daylight, and, as he 
opened his eyes, he saw Turrell standing over 
him, anxiously observing Tom’s wounds. 


140 ADVENTURES OF TOM liOPER. 

‘‘Dear Turrell,” cried Tom, “how glad I am 
to see you alive ; do you know, I was greatly 
worried about you yesterday, when I saw the 
regiment in the thick of the fight. It did n’t 
seem possible for one to be in such a tremendous 
fight and come off with a whole skin.” 

“Yes, thank God, I escaped without a 
scratch, although I can hardly believe it ; but I 
see you ’ve manag'ed to get cut up a little ; I hope 
it isn’t much of any thing. I ’m very sorry you 
didn’t follow my advice. Come, you must go 
and see the surgeon ; it won’t do to neglect your- 
self ; I ’ll go along with you, otherwise you may 
find it hard to get any attention, the surgeons 
have their hands so full. Ah, its sad work, this 
fighting! but we ’ve had a glorious victory. 
What a licking they got ; they lost three to our 
one !” V 

“Oh, there isn’t much the . matter with me, 
but it may be as well to patch me up Avith some 
of your sticking plaster,” and so they went over 
to the hospital, after Tom had despatched a 
jorum of coffee and some hard tack. The camp 
hospital, which Avas, at that time, only a col- 
lection of tents, Avas full of Avounded, although 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


141 


liuiidrecls and thousands l^esides had been car- 
ried to the hospital at Balaclava. 

While the surgeon was dressing Tom’s wounds, 
which he pronounced not to be serious, if care 
were taken not to catch cold in them^ he said, 
“I understand, Mr. Roper, that you are an 
American. If you are bound to fight, I am glad 
to see you on our side. That is the way it 
should be ; I take this as a good omen. Too 
long have England and America been jealous of 
each other ; let us now be friends ; the two 
greatest and most progressive nations in the 
world, why should we not, henceforth, fight 
shoulder to shoulder in helping forward the true 
progress of mankind ? Eh, Captain Turrell ! 
that’s correcjfc doctrine, is it not ?” 

“ I agree to what you say with all my heart,” 
answered Turrell. “I have been in America 
and think it a noble country, the genuine out- 
growth of British institutions.” 

One night, two or three weeks after this, 
Tom was lying in his tent unable to sleep and 
meditating about leaving Sebastopol. The terri- 
fic gale of the 14th November, 1854, had but 
recently occurred,- in which forty vessels of the 


14-2 


ADVENTUllES OF TOM KOPEK. 


allied fleets had been destroyed and a thousand 
lives lost. Kor had its destruction been confined 
to the sea. Its violence had prostrated the tents 
and produced much suffering. In addition to 
this, winter, with all its horrors, was rapidly 
approaching, and as there was no prospect that 
Turrell would be likely to be relieved, from duty 
for some time to come, unless he should be killed 
or wounded, and as, accordingly, it was very 
unlikely that their plan for traveling would ever 
be carried out any further, Tom had about ar- 
rived at the conclusion that the best thing he 
could do, would be to say farewell to Turrell, 
and pack up his kit and leave for home. Ills 
wounds were now so nearly well that he could 
do this without injury to himself. While pur- 
suing this train of thought, Tom fancied he 
saw, by the dim, uncertain light of the low can- 
dle, a movement in the curtain of the tent door, 
which was followed by the entrance of a head. 

“ Who goes there ?” cried Tom. 

“And sure, sur, and it’s only mesilf. Private 
Mulrooney, Co. 3, — th Eigim’nt, an’ may it 
plaise yer honor ; and it’s Misther Iloperr that 
1 ’m afthcr looking fur.” 


ADVENTURES OF TOM KOFER. 


143 


“Ah, very good, that’s my name! What 
is it you want of me ? Any thing about Cap- 
tain Turrell ?” asked Tom, with a sort of mis- 
giving that the man, who belonged to Turrell’s 
command, might have some unpleasant news. 

“You ’re afther spakin’ the same, sir. An’ 
sure an’ it’s the captain liimsilf as said to 
me, says he, ‘ Mulrooney, you ’ll find me frind, 
Mistlier Eoperr in me tint ; go an’ tell him Cap- 
tain Turrell would loike to see him.’ ” 

“ Where is he ?” 

“Just a bit from here, in the hospital.” 

“ In the hospital ! What ’s ho doing in 
the hospital ? Not hurt, is he ?” 

“That’s just it, sur, an’ it’s Pat Mulrooney 
that’s sorry to be saying it, for a mighty brave 
boy an’ a thrue gintleman is that same Captain 
Turrell.” 

“Not hurt badly, I hope I” 

“ Faith, an’ it’s not for the loikes of me to 
be saying of it ; that ’s for the surgeon to tell ye, 
sur.”. 

“And how was he wounded?” inquired 
Tom, as he hurriedly followed his guide in the 
dark through the miry lanes of the camp. 


144 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROTER. 


‘‘Well, sur, this is how it happened. The 
eaptaiii, ye see, was posting the men for the 
night, when whizz conies a hall through one of 
thiin imbrasures, and says I to Jim Kelley, him 
as was next to me, ‘ Jim,’ says I, ‘thini bloody 
sharpshooters is afther gitting the range of us, ’ 
an’ bedad, sur, just then comes another shot, 
an’ says Misther Turrell, says he, ‘ ah ! those 
fellows have hit me at last,’ and he reeled loike 
as if he would be falling, and I, as was nigh to 
him, caught him in me arms.” 

On reaching the hospital, Tom found Tur- 
rell lying on his back, pale and exhausted ; he 
smiled faintly as Tom entered and came to his 
side. 

“My poor Turrell,” said Tom, in a tone 
of deep feeling, “you are not hurt badly, are 
you? I hope it is only a small affair.” 

“I hope so, too; but I fear it is worse 
than that,” said Turrell, slowly, and then, as 
the surgeon, who was standing by, cautioned 
Tom not to weary the captain with taDdng, 
Turrell said, with some effort, “Dr. Slecman, 
this is my friend, Mr. Eoper.” 

“Ah, Mr. Koper, happy to make your ac- 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 145 

quaintance ! I am sorry you find our friendj 
Captain Tiirrell, on his back.” 

“i^ot dangerously wounded, I trust,” said 
Tom. 

“ With proper treatment, I dare say he 
would be about again in a few weeks, but oh, 
dear me, what can you expect in such a place as 
this ; but he has a good constitution and will 
probably live through it : fortunate for him that 
he has a friend, like you, on the spot to nurse 
him up. Ila, ha ! we ’ll make a surgeon of you 
yet, Mr. Koper ; nothing better than a little 
clinical practice to begin on,” remarked Dr. 
Sleeman, who was a short, pursy, red-faced 
little man, with an ample double chin, and a 
stomach that looked as if he had swallowed a 
pumpkin. 

“Where is the wound?” asked Tom. 

“The ball, a minnie, you know, entered 

under the fifth rib, and, being evidently fired 

from below, has proceeded upwards, lodging 

under the left clavicle or shoulder blade, near the 

spine. I have just been probing the wound, but 

I fear the captain, if he survives it, will have to 

carry about in his body an ounce or two of Rus- 
10 


146 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


sian lead all the rest of his days ; — should n’t 
dare to try to extract it ; might kill him, you 
know, poor fellow,” observed Dr. Sleeman, in 
an undertone, wiping the blood from his instru- 
ments as he spoke. 

A groan from the wounded man now called 
Tom to his side, and as he bathed his forehead, 
he felt that, whatever might have been his 
desires or resolutions to return home, his post of 
duty, for the present, must be by the couch of 
his suffering friend. 


ADVENTURES OF TOM EORER. 


147 


Chapter IX. 

Jt******** 

go into the details of Captain TurrelPs 
Dng period of sntfering and convalesc- 
nce in the hospital at Scutari, on the 
Bosjphorus, where he was taken, and where our 
friend Tom watched and tended him, would be, 
perhaps, monotonous to the impatient reader, 
who very naturally prefers exciting incident 
and adventure. A number of radiating aster- 
isks have therefore been inserted by our oblig- 
ing compositor at the head of this chapter, 
as indicating that a portion of this narrative 
has been omitted, or skipped, and that we now 
proceed to the perusal of events more entertain- 
ing than the account of how a wounded soldier 
lay for months on a hard couch, in a long 
corridor, where hundreds of other sick and 
wounded men were lying in rows, tended by 
faithful nurses. I must not omit to state, how- 
ever,* that the famous Miss Nightingale, of 
wliom Longfellow wrote in his poem, entitled 
Santa riiilomena, which you have probably 



148 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


read, was at the vast hospital of Scutari at 
tlie time when Turrell was there, and Tom 
often saw her stately but graceful form gliding 
like an angel of mercy from couch to couch, 
ministering to the suffering. 

When Turrell was able to get about again, 
the warm days of Spring were approaching. 
Spring begins early there, and although it was 
still February, yet the almond trees were white 
with fragrant blossoms, and the sparrows and 
swallows were twittering and building their 
nests under the eaves of the rusty, mouldering 
houses of Scutari. It was pleasant for the in- 
valid to walk out again, and look on the cloud- 
less sky and the deep blue water gleaming with 
idle sails, and the old imperial city, with its 
pearly variation of tints as seen in the distance ; 
but for Turrell to return to Sebastopol, and to 
fighting, was pronounced by the physicians to 
be utterly out of the question ; but as he was 
loth to return home without further adventure 
and further travel in the East, and as Tom had 
in the meantime obtained from his parents their 
someAvhat reluctant consent to his continued 
absence, the two -friends concluded to journey 





I 




The Voyage on the Checkdeme. — Page 149. 


ADYEXTURES OF TOM ROPER. 149 

by easy stages across Turkey, in Asia, to the 
Persian Gulf, whence they would proceed to 
India. They laid down no definite plan, nor 
set any particular time for the limit of their 
travels, allowing themselves rather to be guided 
by circumstances in their movements, which is, 
after all, the pleasantest way of traveling. We 
shall follow them on their renewed adventures, 
although to describe all the strange sights and 
incidents attendant on such a journey, would be 
to write quite a library of volumes. 

Hiring a checkdeme, a small Turkish craft 
pointed at the bow and stern, lying low in the 
water amidshqis, so that the gunwale often ran 
under in a fresh breeze, our travelers went on 
board with their baggage. They were accompa- 
nied by a trusty Armenian servant named ITo- 
hannes, in the place of Beppo, who had proved 
altogether too light-fingered and rascally to be 
retained. 

It was blowing a spanking breeze from the 
northeast when they cast off, and the skipper, 
a burly Turk, with a green turban, which is 
worn by those who claim a pretended descent 


i 


150 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


from Mahomet, and a pipe in his mouth, took 
charge of the tiller. 

“ ‘A wot sheet and a flowing sea, 

A wind that follows fast, 

And fills the white and swelling sail. 

And hends the gallant mast!’ 

Aye, that’s the wind for me,” said Tom with 
exultation, as the dapper little craft went off 
“ Avitha hone in her mouth,” leaping ahead over 
the hounding hilloAvs like a startled fawn, as she 
careened under the pressure of her mainsail, 
topsail, and top-gallantsail and jih, with a dash 
of spray over her how and a furrowed Avake 
astern, and the towers of Constantinople rapidly 
blending and hiding aAAmy in the distance. The 
Avind held all day on the quarter, and toAvards 
sundown the checkdeme made the port of 
Moodania, which is on the sea of Marmora, 
and the passengers Avere put ashore in the little 
cockboat Avhich had been toAved astern. Here 
a scene ensued such as the travelers had become 
himiliar Avith by this time, a great hullabaloo 
from hostlers, idlers, children and dogs, collected 
to let horses, or to beg for paras, or merely to 
look on and contribute the aid of their stento- 
rian lungs to the invariable confusion Avith 


ADVENTUKES OP TOM EOTER. 151 

which every such transaction must be attended 
in the East. Finally the party secured horses, 
mounted, and preceded by the brigand-looking 
surrigee or hostler, rode off for Brusa. After a 
monotonous trot for several hours over a wide 
plain, splashing through streams and hooted at 
by the owls, the cavalcade reached iBrusa 
about midnight, clattering noisily over the 
rough pavement of the narrow crooked streets, 
and bringing up at the door of a locanda kept 
by a German named Stork. After a loud and 
prolonged rapping, which rang far and wide 
wnth echoes that might almost have called up the 
ghost of Hannibal, who spent the last days of 
his life here, more than two thousand years ago, 
the boniface unbarred the gate and allowed the 
weary travelers to enter, rubbing his blinking 
eyes with one hand and holding a dripping 
candle in the other, with whose melancholy and 
fitful flicker he piloted his guests through the 
spacious but lonely halls of what had once been 
the kanak or palace of some oriental grandee. 

A meal, unexpectedly sumptuous, was after 
a while served up, consisting of various dishes 
of meats seasoned with appetizing condiments. 


152 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


and a mimic mountain of pillaff or rice cooked 
in the eastern style, a dish which graces every 
meal of importance in Turkey. Then followed 
pastry, and coffee and cigarettes. This mid- 
night dinner was served up in a large hall that 
was but poorly furnished, but had its walls 
adorned with what had once been showy gilded 
carvings and arabesques. 

“It strikes me,” said Tom, leaning back 
in his chair after dinner, “that this is one of 
the oddest occasions ; here we are, between two 
and three o’clock in the morning, in a hall that 
has once rung with revelry and mirth, supping, 
dining or breakfasting, as you please, lonely as a 
pair of spectres ; and in fact, when I think of 
the weddings and the junketings, the fiddles and 
the shouts, that must have rung here in days 
gone by, I feel like one who walks alone some 
banquet hall deserted, whose lights are fied, 
whose garlands dead, etc. Curious, is it not, 
Turrell, eh ? Perhaps it seems more so to me, 
because I am so used up.” 

“It does seem odd; the whole day has 
been a curious one ; our sail across the Mar- 
mora, the landing and ride across the plain, 


ADVENTUIIES OF TOINF EOPEE. 


153 


and this haunted old mansion with its wierd 
corridors and stairways, and that any thing but 
ghostly host, whose portly form reminds one 
rather of wine vaults than the vaults where 
ghosts abide, and who, even if his name is 
Stork, waddles rather than stalks about his 
house.” 

“]!To more of that an’ you love me, Tur- 
rell ; it ’s too late in the day, or rather too early 
in the morning, to be getting off any of your 
wretched puns. But come, let ’s to bed.” 

“ To bed is it you say, then to bed it is, 
and sweet be the slumbers of the young and 
brave ! But hark, — hold, — what ’s that ! — did 
you notice that, Tom !” said Turrell in a more 
serious tone, as a sound struck his ear like the 
distant roll of thunder, followed by a very per- 
ceptible shaking of the whole building, causing 
the casement to rattle, and setting the glasses 
on the table to jingling for a few seconds. 

“ ’Twas but the wind, 

Or the car rattling o’er the stony street,” 

answered Tom in a bantering tone, when diis 
eye caught the horrified expression on the face 
of Ilohannes, who was standing behind Turrell, 


154 


ADVENTURES OF TOM RORER. 


and was now crossing himself rapidly, while his 
face grew deathly pale. 

Turrell and Tom rose simnltaneously and 
made for the stairway. They both perceived 
that it was a shock of an earthquake. As it was 
not repeated, after a while they were shown to 
their chamber, where they laid down on the 
divan, and did not wake until the sun burst into 
the apartment, and without so much as saying, 
“by your leave,” disturbed the slumbers of the 
weary travelers. 

Brusa is situated at the foot of Mt. Olym- 
pus, which towers nearly ten thousand feet 
above the city, a greater height than the White 
mountains, or any mountains you have, seen 
unless you have been to the Bocky mountains, 
or visited the Alps. The summit is covered 
with eternal snows from which a thousand rivu- 
lets descend, that murmur through the narrow 
streets with a grateful warbling in the burning 
days of summer, and fill the broad plain between 
the city and the sea with the richest verdure. 
For this reason Brusa has in past times been 
considered, with Damascus and Bagdad, one of 
the Paradises of the East. 


ADYETq-TURES OF TOM ROPER. 


155 


The day after the arrival of our travelers 
in Briisa was devoted to strolling among the 
antiquities of the place. They visited the tombs 
of some of the early Turkish Sultans, including 
the grave of Othmiin, the founder of the Em- 
pire, surnamed the Bonebreaker, so tremendous 
was the force with which he could bring down 
his massive iron mace on the skull of his ene- 
mies in battle. He was the leader of a small 
Turkish, horde who were as much shepherds as 
warriors. By the genius and exploits of Othm!\n 
this pastoral tribe of wandering shepherds be- 
came the source whence arose one of the greatest 
Empires the world has seen. One of the ex- 
ploits of Othman was the capture of the Castle 
of Bilejik, near Brusa. 

For the sake of preserving peace between 
the tribe and the Greeks Avho held the castle, 
Ortogrool, the father of Othmi\n, had for a 
number of years sent his treasures to Bilejik 
as pledges of peace when the tribe went abroad 
to pasture their flocks ; and to lull all suspicion, 
the treasures were always carried to the castle 
by a train of women. Othman concluded to 
take advantage of this custom to seize the for- 


150 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


tress, at a time when he heard that the lord of 
the castle was to marry his daughter to the son 
of a neighboring chieftain. 

The fair Niloiifer, with the bridal train, 
had left her castle home accompanied by her 
father and a band of warriors, when a train of 
women dressed in white appeared in the grey of 
morning at the castle gate of Bilejik, bearing 
jars in which they said were the treasures of 
Othmiin which they were sent to deposit in the 
castle, as in past seasons. 

The broad gates were flung open, and the 
long trail of veiled women passed through into 
the court yard of the castle. Once there, the 
muffled figures threw off their veils at a con- 
certed signal, and disclosed to the horrified gar- 
rison a band of Turkish warriors armed to the 
teeth, who under this disguise had surprised the 
fortress. A bloody fight immediately followed, 
but the garrison were overpowered and slain to 
a man. In the meantime, Othman had laid an 
ambuscade by the banks of a stream which the 
bridal cavalcade was to cross. They fell into 
the snare, and only Kiloufer, the bride, was 
spared to tell the tale of that bloody day’s 


ADVENTUIIES OF TO^I ROPER. 157 

'.vork, whicli deprived her of a husband and a 
father, of friends and of home. Othmc\n gave 
her for wife to his son Orhi\n, and she became 
tlie mother of a dynasty of kings. She lies 
buried in Brusa, where she lived four hundred 
years ago, after Brusa was captured by Othmkn- 
and made the Turkish capital, until the fall of 
Constantinople. 

Having wandered about the curious old 
city to their hearts’ content, Tom and his friend 
betook themselves to a bath outside of the city. 
Like the water in all Turkish baths, the water 
was very hot, but, curious to relate, it was 
warmed not by artificial heat, but bubbled from 
a rock heated to order, and over this rock the 
bath was built. Our friends entered a long 
hall, in the centre of which a fountain was toss- 
ing up a beaded silvery spray that fell with a 
tinkling sound into a marble basin. Around the 
sides of the apartment was a raised platform, 
called a divan, well carpeted and cushioned. 
Selecting- their places on this, the visitors pro- 
ceeded to disrobe themselves, and an attendant 
wrapped towels around them, and bidding them 
step into high wooden clogs, led the way into 


158 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


a vestibule small and close and dark as a prison 
cell, suffocatingly full of dense vapor that almost 
caused Tom to fear he might evaporate in a 
few minutes, the perspiration ran so rapidly 
from every pore. After being left here some 
moments the friends were led into the bathing 
hall, a large vaulted apartment floored with 
marble, lit only by faint rays of light streaming 
through bull’s eyes in the domed roof, and vap- 
orous as a fog at sea. Spectral looking forms 
could be seen moving in the misty light, and 
the wild oriental songs of the bathers rang 
strangely echoing around the hall blending with 
the sound of dashing waters. 

After a long process of rubbing, soaping 
and dowsing in hot and cold water, a process 
delicious in the extreme, although the descrip- 
tion may not appear so, the telliik or attendant 
wrapped fresh towels around Tom and led him 
to the outer court again, where he reclined on 
the divan, and had water flavored with mastic, 
and a narghile or water-pipe brought to liim. 
Turrell soon followed, and the friends lay thus 
for over an hour in a state of ecstacy, a sort of 
waking dream of delight. AYhen at last they 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 159 

dressed themselves again and left the hath, 
Tom said, 

‘‘I never felt lighter in my life, I feel Just 
as if I could fly ; just as if I could do any thing 
1 cared to undertake, if it was n’t that I feel 
so perfectly comfortable and happy, so xDerfectly 
satisfied with myself and the world generally, 
that I have n’t the least desire just now to do 
any unnecessary action.” 

“That’s just it,” replied Turrell. “I 
feel like another man. If I could take these 
baths for a month, I verily believe I never 
should feel another pain from that ball in my 
shoulder.” 

“Why, it would give us a lease of life as 
long as Methusaleh’s,” said Tom, with enthu- 
siasm. 

“Exactly.” 

“ Let ’s stay here a little longer.” 

“Agreed.” 

“Won’t old Stork be jolly about it. I’ll 
hot he ’ll send in a rousing bill, though ; for, 
you see, he do n’t have guests every day.” 

And so the travelers concluded to remain 
in Brusa for the present, bathing and riding 


IGO ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 

about the country. Tom used to be consider- 
ably amused in the early morning, and towards 
evening, hearing the summons to matins and 
vespers. The Armenian sexton went around 
beating the pavement with a staff before the 
gates of Armenian houses and singing the sum- 
mons in a drawling tone, while an iron bar 
hung over the church door, instead of a bell, 
was struck rapidly with a mallet, giving out a 
sharp metallic ring heard at a long distance. 

One day a wedding was to take place in a 
rich Armenian family, and through the kind- 
ness of the English consul our friends received 
an invitation to attend. 

The ceremonies continued two days, ter- 
minating on the evening of the second day, 
when our friends went about seven o’clock to 
the house of the bridegroom with the other 
guests. Some of his robes were then blessed by 
the priest, and heralded by lanterns and mu- 
sicians, the party proceeded to the house of 
the bride. After assembling there the company 
were sprinkled with rose water, and the bride 
was summoned to inake her appearance. She 
was but thirteen years of age, and the bride- 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 161 

groom had never seen her except at a distance, 
the whole negotiations for the marriage having 
been conducted by the parents. 

After considerable apparent reluctance, 
which was according to the most approved 
custom, the young bride with her attendants 
came forward, completely hidden with massive 
silks — not even her face being visible. When 
the hands of the bride and bridegroom had been 
joined, the marriage service w^as read by the 
priests, who were dressed in flowing robes, and 
wore long beards and high stiff caps of black felt. 

But the ceremony was not yet completed. 
All present were about to adjourn to a neigh- 
boring church to go through another protracted 
ceremony, attended by much burning of tallow 
candles and incense, and much chanting through 
the nose ; this was to be followed by congratu- 
latory calls from friends for some days, after all 
which the bridegroom was to be permitted to 
raise the veil of his young wife and make her 
acquaintance at last. 

But an appalling and entirely unlooked-for 
event shortened these ceremonies, prevented 

this hoped-for consummation, and before thev 

11 


1(32 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


had even formed each other’s acquaintance, 
sundered the newly wedded pair forever. 

Tom was standing with a group near the 
centre of the hall ; Turrell, fatigued by the long 
ceremonial, had concluded to seek the hotel 
instead of attending the party to the church, 
and had been gone -but a few moments. Can- 
dles had been distributed to all the guests, and 
these having been lighted, word was given for 
the bridal procession to start, when an oniinous 
roaring sound wap heard approaching, attended 
by the yelping of curs, the cackling of fowls, 
and the screams of human beings. Before one 
of the party could utter a word the whole build- 
ing was upheaved by a tremendous earthquake, 
in shocks swiftly repeated, with increasing and 
terrific violence. Eafter and timber, flooring 
and roof, wall, door, and stairway, were rent 
asunder in a few seconds, and with the wedding 
party held in their fearful embrace, fell to the 
ground a heap of shapeless ruins. But from 
those ruins what shrieks of anguish, what heart- 
rending groans, what cries to heaven, what 
dying gasps, went up ! 

Tom, overwhelmed in the universal crash. 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 163 

and stunned by a blow from a falling rafter, did 
not come to himself for some little time ; but 
with returning consciousness he became aware 
that he had received no severe injury, although 
pinned to the earth by a mass of timbers hope- 
lessly interlocked ' over him, which had fallen, 
however, in such a way as to preserve him from 
fatal injury. But as he stretched out his hand, 
groping round in the darkness to feel his where- 
abouts, he laid it on the gory and lifeless form 
of one of the unhappy wedding guests. During 
this time repeated shocks were occurring, and 
Tom felt that his chance of escaping alive from 
the ruins was but slim ; for, from all parts of 
the city he could hear the cries of the horror- 
stricken multitudes, mingling with the last sighs 
of the dying, and knew that in the general 
consternation but little would be done for the 
rescue of those, like him, buried alive, and 
exposed to a lingering death. He was the more 
appalled by his situation, because he could now 
distinguish the cry, “Yangun Yur!” “There 
is Fire,” which he had heard so often in the 
East. The fires in some of the falling buildings 
had communicated with dry timbers, and the 


164 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


horrors of a conflagration were ad'ded to the 
untold and mysterious terrors of the earthquake. 

In the meantime Turrell, who had but a 
few moments before quitted the house of fes- 
tivity, was picking his way through the dark 
streets, Hohannes going ahead and piloting 
him with a sort of paper or, Chinese lantern. 
Warned by the roaring sound previously men- 
tioned, he and Hohannes immediately rushed 
for a spot where the street widened, a few steps 
beyond, and barely had they reached the place 
when they were shaken by the earthquake, and 
saw a shower of tiles rain from a toppling roof 
down on the part of the street they had just 
passed over, followed by the house itself, pitching 
into the street with a horrible din. The streets 
were immediately filled with men, women, and 
children, pouring into them from the houses on 
all sides, many just from their beds, and scream- 
ing to God, to the saints, to the Yirgin Mary, 
crying “ Lord have mercy !” and falling on 
their bare knees on the pavement and frantically 
crossing themselves. 

r earful as all this was the worst of it lasted 
but -a few seconds,'and when the most violent 


ADVENTTJTIES OF TOM ROPEK. 


1G5 


(?hock was over Turrell had time to raise an eja- 
culation of gratitude to God that he was still 
alive, and then his first thought was for Tom. 
Seizing hold of Hohannes, who was trembling 
with terror, he bade him follow, and made his 
way as best he could in the darkness through 
the crooked lanes that were beset with crowds, 
and not unfrequently blocked by fragments of 
some building overthrown. 

After what seemed a long while although 
in reality but a few moments, Turrell reached 
the place where the house in which he left Tom 
had stood ; but nothing of it was to be seen in 
the dusky light but a heap of ruins, from which 
came sounds of pain or entreaty for deliverance. 
Greatly as Turrell feared that this might be the 
case, yet when he actually saw the dwelling 
destroyed he could hardly believe the evidence 
of his senses, but was almost inclined to think 
that he had perhaps mistaken his way in the 
uncertain light and the excitement of the hour, 
and that perhaps the house he was looking for 
was in another quarter. So, in spite of Ho- 
hannes’ assertions to the contrary, he retraced 
his steps, searching elsewhere in vain for the ill- 


106 


ADYENTUr.ES OF TOM EOPER. 


flited mansion, until, with a heavy heart, he 
returned to the ruin, convinced that the liouse 
h;id indeed become the shapeless wreck that hor- 
rified his vision, and that beneath it lay his 
dear friend Tom, with -so many other unfor- 
tunates, crushed and dead. 

But it would not do to act on this too 
probable supposition, and accordingly Turrell, 
aided by the trembling yet faithful Hohannes, at 
once began to search for Tom among the debris. 

“Tom, my good fellow, Tom, are you 
here ?” cried Turrell, groping among the ruins. 

Tom, if you are alive, just answer, if it be but 
a word, and I’ll have you out of this in half a 
wink ! Tom, Tom !” and then Turrell stopped 
to listen for a reply. 

From under a heap of rafters, as if from 
the bottom of a well, came a voice. “Is that 
you, Turrell ? Come over this way, and lend us 
a helping hand. ’ ’ 

Overjoyed, Turrell and Hohannes proceeded 
to the spot whence issued the answering voice, 
“Good heavens, Tom, are you under this huge 
mass of rubbish, and yet alive !” 

“ Aye, aye ; but don’t worry ; thank heaven, 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 167 

I’m not much hurt, but am only imprisoned by 
these heavy beams. But there’s a poor girl 
groaning near me, and if she isn’t taken out 
mighty quick she-’ll die. If you can just pry 
off a little of this timber, I can get out and help 
you.” 

“Courage, my boy, we’ll have you both out 
in a few moments, if we don’t have another 
such shock of earthquaking.” Turrell might 
well put in that last proviso, for slight shocks 
were constantly occurring, threatening to be fol- 
lowed by one harder than any yet experienced. 
But he and Hohannes, and others who now 
joined them, worked with might and main, fol- 
lowing the directions of Turrell, who being 
accustomed to command, and having a cooler 
head than the rest, could best devise ways of 
removing enough of the wreck to get at some of 
those yet alive. After toiling incessantly for 
half an hour, sufficient was accomplished for 
Turrell to reach down his hand and lift Tom 
up, and restore him to liberty and life. Long 
did the two friends shake each other’s hand with 
a heartfelt grip ; then Turrell, seeing blood on 
Tom’s chin, where there was an ugly gash, 


1C8 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


whipped- out his handkerchief, folded it and 
passed it under the chin, tying it over his head. 

“And now let us to work again,” said 
Tom. “ There are plenty more under there who 
want our help, and, as you see, now I ’m fairly 
out of my prison there is n’t much the matter 
with me.” Every one was now working with 
all possible haste to rescue those who were yet 
entombed alive beneath the ruins, for now the 
tongues of flame angrily shooting up but a few 
hundred yards ofl* and rapidly approaching, 
and the showers of sparks and cinders darting 
towards the zenith, betokened the approach 
of a still more appalling doom. 

As one after another of the victims were 
reached and removed — some unhurt, others fear- 
fully mangled j^et still alive, others stiffened 
corpses, a small body was found lying with 
hands folded as if in a quiet slumber. Rich 
silks robed the delicate limbs, and a calm ex- 
pression, almost a smile, reposed on the beauti- 
fully moulded features. It was the young bride 
who so short a time before was the central 
object of so much festivity, her heart joyful at 
the prospect of happiness before her. 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 169 

“Take her up carefully,” said Tom; “I 
do n’t believe but what she may yet be alive and 
only, in ta temporary stupor, she still looks so 
natural.” 

“ISTo,” replied Turrell ; “see those drops 
of blood oozing from her mouth : she has suffered 
some internal injury, and probably died instan- 
taneously and without pain. It ’s all over with 
her, poor thing. ” 

At this moment the bridegroom, who had 
been released but little injured from his living 
tomb, and was now searching for his bride, 
approached those who were bearing away her 
corpse. The veil which her own tiny hands 
would have removed in a few days to disclose to 
him the face of his bride, had been withdrawn 
by Death, and the afflicted man now gazed on 
the beautiful features of his lost, child-wife, with 
mute and indescribable despair. 

“Come,” said Turrell, “we have done what 
we could; let us go.” So the two friends 
returned with Hohannes to their hotel, not 
knowing whether they might not find that also 
fallen to the ground. But it was still standing, 
and, exhausted, they sought their couches, al- 


170 


ADVENTURES OF TOM RORER. 


though, after such scenes, their sleep was broken 
and unrefreshing. 

Over four hundred houses, and several hundred 
lives, were destroyed by that earthquake in 
Jh-usa. 


I 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


171 


\ 


Chapter X. 

Turrell, I think the best thing for 
do is to secure horses and get out of 
it once,” said Tom next morning. 

Ko objection being r^ed to this plan, arrange- 
ments for starting were made as soon as practic- 
able in the excitement reigning in the town. In 
addition to Ilohannes, a cavass or armed atten- 
dant was engaged, who was a Turk named 
Resheed. He was a large, martial-looking char- 
acter, wearing a suit of rather rusty blue, 
profusely ornamented with embroidery. A fez 
with a white turban covered his head, and a 
long dagger whose scabbard was inlaid with 
pearl, and an unwieldy brace of flint-lock horse 
pistols, were stuck in his belt. Besides these 
weapons, a long -barreled musket, hung to the 
saddle, coinpleted the armory of Resheed, and 
he carried in his hand a heavy corbash or 
whip. 

Tom’s horse, like the others, was accoutred 



172 ADVENTURES OF T03I ROPER. 

with a sort of high-hacked Mexican saddle, with 
how ill front. The stirrups were broad plates 
of iron wider and longer than the foot, the 
sharp angular points serving as spurs ; the 
bridle was adorned with red tassels, and on the 
horse’s breast hung a three-cornered packet of 
scarlet leather enclosing a scrap of iiaper, on 
which was inscribed a passage from the Koran 
or Mohammedan Scriptures, which was ex- 
pected to be a safeguard, or charm, against the 
evil influences of the powers of darkness. 

In addition to the saddle horses was a pack 
horse, on which was slung the bedding of the 
party, consisting of a heavy quilt for each, 
waterproofs, saddlebags containing stores and 
clothing, medicines, and a variety of items ne- 
cessary for a long trip in the East. 

After leaving a sum of money for distribution 
among those who had suffered by the earthquake, 
the party mounted and clattered out of Brusa 
in the order which was generally kept up during 
the journey. First rode the surrigee or muleteer, 
whose business it was to lead the way and take 
charge of the horses ; then came Eeslieed, then 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


173 


Turrell and Tom, and lastly Holiannes, the path 
and the trained habits of the horses generally 
admitting only of going single file. 

And now they were fairly started on the 
long journey across the Turkish Enipire. The 
point to be reached was Mosool on the Tigris ; 
the route chosen was a little out of the usual 
course, and as the intense heats of summer were 
not far distant, our travelers were obliged to 
proceed by long stages. During their stay in 
Constantinople, while Turrell was recovering 
his strength, both he and Tom had contrived to 
pick up some words of the Turkish language, 
and in fact, Tom had studied it a little with an 
old white-bearded Hodjah or scholar, who was 
glad enough to make a few piastres in this way. 
Quick at learning, Tom had managed to write 
in a bungling way some of the copies set him 
in black and red ink, although it would have 
taken him years to become skillful at that, for, 
like many oriental languages, tlie Turkish is 
written from right to left across the page, and 
.with a stiff pen of reed, the paper being held in 
the left hand. You can easily see that the best 
writers could never write rapidly in this way, 


174 


ADVENTUllES OF T03I ROPER. 


especially with such angular and disconnected 
letters as the Turkish. You will therefore he 
surprised to hear that, until very lately, hooks 
in the East have been written hy hand instead 
of being printed ; this, as you can readily see, 
must have been a great labor, and must have 
made books both rare and expensive. There 
are men whose sole profession it is to transcribe 
books, and write letters for those who cannot 
write. Sometimes these books have been very 
beautifully executed, the' margins profusely 
adorned with the most delicate and ingeliious 
designs, variously tinted and gilded. Our two 
friends found Their little smattering of Turkish 
was now of great value. Indeed, they could 
not have got along without speaking or under- 
standing a little of it, and every day increased 
their stock of phrases, so that by the time they 
reached Mosool they could converse with some 
fluency in broken Turkish. 

They journeyed from ten to thirteen hours 
a day, over wide and thinly-peopled plains, 
golden and crimson with the butter-cups and 
poppies that blended with the waving herbage 
of spring ; or they picked their way over rough 


ADVENTUIIES OF TOM llOFER. 


175 


and dangerous mountain paths, through dark 
and narrow passes, where the only sound was 
the hark of the shepherd’s dog, the tinkling 
of the goat’s bell, the scream of the hawk and 
the eagle and the yelp of the jacHal ; or they 
rode by streams bordered by the laurel and the 
oleander, or forded foaming torrents, whose roar 
deafened their ears, and whose turbid flood 
threatened to sweep them away. Once Tom’s 
horse lost his footing in a stream that reached up 
to the saddle girths, and, unable to stem the 
rushing tide, was borne away, until luckily ho 
managed to gain a footing lower down where 
the water was deeper but more calm, and Tom 
was then able to swim the horse to the opposite 
bank ; but for a few moments he thought it was 
all over with himself. 

At night they slept in the miserable, filthy 
coffee houses in the villages, rolled up in their 
blankets, or as they proceeded further on, put 
up in the hovels of the peasants, low huts of 
mud, in which the flxmily lived in one end, 
sleeping on the earthen floor, while the cows, 
donkeys and fowls occupied the other end of the 
hovel, and the smoke from the fire of brush- 


176 


ADVENTURES OF T03I ROPER. 


wood or charcoal found its only outlet through 
the door or chinks in the roof. Sometimes the 
chief man of the place where they put up, some 
lordly Turk of decayed fortunes, living in' an 
old, rambling, dilapidated ancestral mansion, 
would hear of the arrival of strangers in the 
place, and would insist on having them his 
guests ; then would follow a banquet in the 
oriental style. A sheep .would be killed and 
roasted whole, and the meal would be served up 
in the salaamlik or guest chamber. The attend- 
ants would bear in a large round tray with the 
viands and place it on a low stool. Around 
this the guests would seat themselves cross- 
legged on the floor, and all helped themselves 
by dipping their fingers into the same dish. 
For napkins they used round cakes of unleav- 
ened bread as large as a dinner plate, called 
ped^h, on pieces of which they wiped their 
fingers, before eating it. Pilaf followed by 
pastry, always closed the meal, and coffee 
often repeated. The guests were also sometimes 
entertained by musicians playing on flutes, rude 
guitars and kettle-drums, in a monotonous sort 
of a way, and b}^ dancing women hired to 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


177 


dance for the company. In Turkey people 
dance by proxy, that is, by having others do 
the dancing for them. Tom was reminded by 
this of the passage in Scripture, “ we have piped 
unto you and ye have not danced.” The mo- 
tions of the dancing women of the East might 
appear very strange in this country, hut I do n’t 
believe they are more absurd than the dances of 
our own country, which do not seem to have 
much sense to them. 

Sometimes in the course of their wander- 
ings, our travelers arrived at a city surrounded 
by crumbling battlements and famous in legend 
and history ; sometimes, at mid-day, they would 
come to a little clump of verdure, poplars, wil- 
lows and plane trees and beech trees, whispering 
in the breeze by the side of a brawling brook, 
or overhanging a fountain inscribed with pious 
sentences from the Koran. Then they would 
stop there an hour and eat their cold chicken or 
cold boiled eggs, and a cup of coffee which 
Hohannes would cook over a fire of brushwood ; 
while the patient horses munched their barley 
out of the bags hung under their noses. Some- 
times again, they were obliged to proceed warily, 
12 


178 


ADVENTURES OF TOM llOTEIl. 

for a robber haunt was near, and sometinies 
they actually met a group of ferocious armed 
cut-throats, unquestionably prepared to rob, 
who eyed them keenly but hardly dared to 
attack so strong a party. 

Such was the tenor of their days in Asia 
Minor. “ Wild was the life they led wild, 
racy and romantic as the old and strange coun- 
tries through which they passed. And healthy 
it was too. Turrell grew more rugged under 
the influence of the brisk mountain air, and 
Tom became more wiry and muscular, more 
manly in his looks, and tanned as an old cam- 
paigner. His mother would scarce have known 
him now, were it not that his brown locks still 
clustered in curls around his temples, and his 
eyes still blended their kindly glance with the 
mature expression which a varied experience, 
oft repeated perils, increased knowledge, and a 
growing self-reliance, imparted to his counte- 
nance. Sometimes, as they journeyed southwest, 
approaching little by little nearer to the Indian 
ocean, Tom’s thoughts would fly in advance, 
and he would dream as he toiled up some moun- 
tain steep of a ship with white sails gleaming 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


179 


on the blue sea far away, and of friends pacing 
lier deck, whom he hoped yet to meet some- 
where in the tropics ; perhaps, too, he thought 
of a maiden who, as she leaned on the bul- 
warks, sent her thoughts sometimes to him who 
was journeying in Asia Minor. And then 
Stoneport, and the delightful associations of it 
which he treasured in his mind, would appear 
before his mental vision. But how far off they 
all seemed, how unreal, how much like the 
scenes of another life, of a past existence ! For 
although he had been gone less than a year, yet 
so much had he seen, so much had he passed 
through, that it seemed years since he sailed 
out of Stoneport, in his ill-fated little schooner. 

At last, after days and weeks of wander- 
ing, our travelers came to the town of XJrfa, 
which used to be the Ur of the Chaldees of 
which you read in Genesis, the place from which 
Abraham emigrated to Canaan, pasturing his 
flocks in the rich meadow lands of Mesopotamia 
as he journeyed ; and before many days the 
travelers came down to that great desert of 
verdure that lies between the rivers Euphrates 
and Tigris, and is called Mesopotamia or the 


180 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


Land between the Elvers. The Euphrates, you 
may remember, is one of the four rivers that 
flowed out of the Garden of Eden. But this 
wide region, which in ancient times had a large 
population and manj’- teeming cities on its 
borders, is now swept by Arab tribes, who feed 
their vast flocks on the three harvests of her- 
bage which it yields every year, and carry on a 
constant predatory warfare among themselves, 
and rob every traveler who crosses those waste 
lands, unless he is accompanied by a sufficient 
armed escort, or can secure the convoy of some 
powerful chief who will pilot him safely across 
the country. Mosool, near what was once the 
famous Nineveh, was the point on the river 
Tigris which the travelers wanted to reach, but 
in order to do this, with prudence they were 
obliged to enter into negotiations with a chief 
of the Aneyzee tribe. The Bedweens or Arabs 
of Mesopotamia are mostly divisible into the 
two great tribes of the Aneyzee and the Sham- 
mar, which are again subdivided into clans. 
When a bargain is once made, and an Arab 
takes' a traveler under his protection, he al- 
ways keeps his compact faithfully, however 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


181 


ready he might otherwise be to rob or murder 
him. 

Abdallah, the shekh or chief, who, after 
much loud talk in guttural Arabic, accompanied 
with many gestures, many appeals to God and 
Mohamet, divers bismillahs, vallahs, mashal- 
lahs, and other oriental oaths, agreed for a cer- 
tain sum to see our friends safe across the 
Mesopotamian desert, was about thirty years 
old, and tall, thin, supple but muscular, with a 
long burnoos or cloak thrown over his should- 
ers, a handkerchief somewhat the worse for wear 
flaunting in the breeze when he rode, and bound 
on his head by a cord passing around the fore- 
■ head, and a long spear in his hand adorned with 
a tuft of feathers. Ilis black eyes burned in his 
swarthy features like coals of fire. 

Kesheed being no longer needed as a pro- 
tection to Mosool was here dismissed, and 
started for home again, while the rest of the 
party started on the second great stage of their 
journey, to traverse the desert. Tlie shekh 
rode on a delool or dromedary, and the baggage 
was packed on the lofty back of a grumbling 
camel. You have often read, perhaps, of the 


182 ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 

patience of tlie camel ; but tliis should be taken 
with some allowance. When a camel is being 
loaded he always expresses his discontent by 
loud and harsh gurgling sounds in his throat 
or attempts at rising from his knees, and when 
bidden to kneel down to be loaded or unloaded 
he is often refractory, nor does he liesitate to 
kick with his large spongy foot, although this is 
not dangerous. But once started on a day’s 
journey, the camel will trudge along hour after 
hour with the noiseless tread of a cat, chewing 
the cud in seeming resignation, and looking the 
very picture of injured innocence and helpless 
despair, the most forlorn of brutes. 

After a few days’ journey the travelers 
reached the camp of the clan to which shekh 
Abdallah belonged. Coarse dark tents of goats 
hair cloth, long and low, might be seen spotting 
the grass in every direction. Before the chief’s 
tent a spear was hxed erect in the ground, 
whose tufted point, conspicuous at some dis- 
tance, served as a standard. 

Here Tom found much to amuse him. 
The brown-skinned boys tumbling about the 
camp at their rude sports, often with no other 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


183 


clothing than a fez or cloth on the head ; the 
herds going forth to the pastures ; the spare, 
small, yet beautifully formed Arabian horses, 
whose speed and endurance combined make them 
the finest breed in the world, were all objects of 
interest to a youth of his tastes. The horses 
are the most valuable treasures of an Arab 
tribe. Each animal has its genealogy well 
known, traceable far back into ancient and 
legendary times. And many a tale of the feats 
performed by famous steeds may be heard 
around the tent door, sung at evening by a 
wandering bard. 

Early in the morning, when the lowing of cat- 
tle, and the bleating of sheep rang over the plain, 
and the rising sun threw the long shadows of the 
camp across the land, and a fresh breeze sighed 
in the long herbage and shook the sparkling dew 
from the petals of the wild flowers which crinu 
soned the landscape far as the eye could see, a 
hunting party would start from the camp to en- 
joy a day’s sport in pursuit of the game which 
everywhere abounded. Greyhounds and falcons 
accompanied the chase. The hawks or falcons 
were carried on the hand, and were kept hooded 


184 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


until near the victim against which they were 
to be flown. Bustards, gazelles, wild hoar, and 
other game were started in these glorious excur- 
sions, and the party usually returned well loaded 
with the spoils of the day’s ride. 

Once a huge old boar was aroused from 
his lair, as Tom was galloping near a clump of 
verdure. As the sturdy beast was making off 
with lumbering but rapid gait, nearly concealed 
by the long grass, above which his brown hairy 
back was alone visible, Tom, without taking 
very deliberate aim, j)lanted a ball just behind 
his shoulder, intended to reach the heart. But 
as the wound was only sufficient to irritate with- 
out seriously disabling, the exasperated brute 
turned short on his pursuer. Tom had barely 
time to rein in his horse, when the boar took the 
horse in the flank, ripping up the flesh with his 
sharp white tusk, and causing a long and 
ghastly wound, which brought the horse to the 
ground. Fortunately he fell in such a way that 
Tom could instantly extricate himself, and take 
a moment’s shelter behind the body of the half- 
fallen horse, against the onset of the foaming 
and infuriated brute. He poured in two or three 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


185 


rapid shots, one of which fortunately broke the 
shoulder blade and crippled the boar, whose 
attention was now diverted by the baying of 
hounds in his rear. Shekh Abdallah terminated 
the combat, by thrusting his spear through the 
animal, and laying him dead on the grass. Tom 
secured the long ivory tusk, which had done 
such execution and had so nearly finished his 
own career, and still holds it in his possession, 
as a curiosity and a remembrancer of his east- 
ern travels. 

As they rode back to the camp in the heat 
of the day, Tom witnessed a spectacle often seen 
in the desert. In the coppery atmosphere 
twinkling witli heat, apparently miles away, lay 
a lake, beside whose cooling waters the feathery 
foliage of palms arose, tinted with a faint purple 
haze, and inviting the w*eary traveler to rest be- 
neath their refreshing shade, and slake his thirst 
in the limpid waters at their feet. It was but 
an illusion, but so natural an illusion that Tom 
could scarcely believe, that what he saw was 
mirage, caused by refraction in the air, as unsub- 
stantial as the dreams of hope too often prove. 

In the course of their journey from the 


186 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


camp of Shekh Abdallah to Mosool, the party 
reached one evening the camp of another por- 
tion of the tribe, where they found every one in 
the greatest excitement, and the Shekh himself 
was instantly thrown into consternation, when 
he heard what was the cause of this confusion. 
It seems that the warriors belonging to this clan, 
had gone off on a ghazoo or plundering expedi- 
tion, leaving the camp, as is often done, in the 
charge of the old men, the boys and the women. 
During their absence, a Turkish Pashd who had 
heard of their intended trip, determined to take 
advantage of it, to carry away to his fortress a 
maiden named Ibla, whose gazelle-like eyes and 
beauty had been sung before the tent of every 
Shekh of the region. As it happened, she was 
already betrothed to Shekh Abdallah, who was 
expecting before long to make her his bride. 

Two or three hours before our party ap- 
peared, while the women were gossiping in 
each other’s tents, or grinding corn in their hand- 
mills, made of two mill-stones, of which the 
upper one is turned by the hand, or weaving 
cloth of goat’s or camel’s hair, and while the 
naked, copper colored urchins were amusing 


ADVENTURr:S OF TOM ROPEF. 187 

themselves at characteristic sports, throwing 
long reeds at a mark as they hoped to hurl 
spears at an enemy, when they grew to man- 
hood, playing hide and seek, among the black 
tents, or earning sound spankings from their 
shrill-voiced mothers for prying into the honey 
pots, or worrying the babies, who were helpless 
in their swaddling clothes ; while the ordinary 
routine of domestic life was thus quietly going 
on, a tumult of sounds was heard on the out- 
skirts of the camp, a troop of boys rushed in 
yelling that the enemy were making a descent on 
the tents, and almost at the same instant a 
handfull of ruffianly Bashibozooks, or irregular 
Turkish soldiery, followed on horseback, bristling 
with arms and headed by a handsome but evil- 
eyed Turk, who made for the tent of Ibla. lie 
was evidently accompanied by one who was ac- 
quainted with the camp. Well aware of their ob- 
ject, the maiden seized a spare tent pole, and 
with her black eyes flashing fire, attempted to 
defend herself with all the heroism of a child of 
the desert, and a daughter of heroic ancestry. 
But her efforts were in vain. Easily overpow- 
ered, she was swooped up by the leader of the 


188 ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 

band, placed on the saddle before him, and held 
firmly there by his iron grasp. Then, speedily 
as they had come, the wild horsemen turned 
bridle, and, rolling a number of boys in the dirt 
as they galloped in disorderly haste out of the 
camp, the trooi^ grew indistinct in the distance, 
until lost entirely to view behind a low mound, 
which covered the ruins of some ancient town. 

The confusion caused by this event, not 
the less terrible, because by no means uncom- 
mon in the lawless life of the desert, had not yet 
subsided, when our friends arrived. The wo- 
men were still screaming, pulling their hair, and 
swaying themselves to and fro, as they clustered 
around the tent doors in a frenzy of rage and 
despair. Shekh Abdallah took little time to 
deliberate on what was best to be done. There*' 
was only one course to follow, and that was 
immediate pursuit of the captors and a bloody 
vengeance ; such was the law and the custom of 
the desm’t. A hurried but decisive parley en- 
sued, and then the Shekh, mounted on his superb 
iron-grey mare, a creature of exquisite mould, 
with a glittering eye, nostrils dilating with 
pride, and possessed of iron endurance, set out 


The Capture of Ibla. — Page 188. 






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■ *#^>v ' ■ . ■<: . ^ ' \:tf m., ' 

.1 • ' •*■ V •</' ■ •• i‘: 

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j 



ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


189 


to track the foe, accompanied by a troop of 
picked warriors, well mounted and determined 
on revenge. Turrell and Tom were left in charge 
of the Arabs who tarried behind. They earn- 
estly desired to go with the pursuing party, but 
the Shekh strongly objected, saying, “ O sons of 
my uncle, (equivalent to our phrase, my friends,) 
am I not under solemn compact to see you safe 
across the desert ? what then shall Allah do unto 
me, if I listen to your wishes and haply you be 
slain in the affray ? my face would be covered 
with blackness should evil befall you ; further- 
more, where is the good of mixing yourselves in 
a quarrel with the Turks unnecessarily, whereby 
you may get yourselves into trouble after you 
leave the desert ? Be content therefore to abide 
here till my return, for, in the name of the 
Prophet, on whom be peace, I will speedily re- 
store the maiden to her father’s tent, and accom- 
pany you to your journey’s end, and may God, 
whose name be exalted, preserve you from evil ! 
Surely there is no power nor strength but in 
God !” Reluctantly convinced by the Shekh ’s 
last argument, our friends remained behind to 
await the issue of the pursuit. 


rjO ADVEXTUllES OF T03I llOPErv. 

The next morning the Arabs belonging to 
the camp, who were absent on a ghazoo when 
the Turks carried off Ibla, returned from their 
plundering expedition, laden with the spoils of . 
their successful foray, among which were many 
camels and sheep, and a number of valuable 
steeds. Their wrath on learning of Ibla’s cap- 
tivity was expressed with all the gesticulations, 
curses, and lamentations with which the Arab 
gives vent to his emotions when excited. It 
was determined that, after a shhrt rest, another 
party should set out to the assistance of those 
who had gone in pursuit ; but just as they were 
about to start, scouts brought in word that the 
rescuing party, headed by Shekli Abdallah and 
Ibla, were within a short distance of the camp. 
Intense excitement immediately ensued. Every 
ftian, woman, and child in the camp, turned out 
to welcome the maiden and her victorious cava- 
liers ; while the mounted Arabs dashed forth to 
meet them in the most frantic manner, yelling 
at the top of their voices, “Welcome in the name 
of God !” and discharging their muskets loaded 
with ball in all directions, apparently in the 
most reckless manner, or hurling their spears 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


191 


and then jpicking them up from the ground, by 
hanging from the saddle, as the horse swept by 
in full career. It was a most animated and ex- 
hilarating spectacle, and Tom entered fully into 
the spirit of the scene. As Ibla rode past him 
and dismounted at the door of her father’s tent 
he did not wonder that Abdallah should be so 
ardent in the rescue. Tall, slender, but grace- 
ful, with a clear, delicate olive complexion tinged 
with a rosy flush, eyes of intense brilliancy yet 
soft in their expression as a gazelle’s, and hair 
black as a raven’s plume, clustering around her 
neck in glossy curls, she was a decided contrast 
to the withered, skinny dames usually seen in an 
Arab camp, and a very favorable specimen of an 
oriental beauty. 

The account of the rescue may be told in 
a few words. Abdallah had no difficulty in 
overtaking the Turks, who, knowing that all 
the able men of the camp were off on a ghazoo, 
and having not the least suspicion of a rescue 
from any other quarter, had bivouacked after 
riding till nightfall, and were keeping but a poor 
lookout. About midnight, when they were all 
asleep, Abdallah and his men stealthily ap- 


192 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


proached them, and, when within a few yards, 
charged on the sleepers with a terrific yell. 
Five or six of the Turks were slain, including the 
leader, the remaindeT escaping under cover of 
night ; and Ibla was mounted on one of the cap- 
tured horses and borne back to the camp in tri- 
umph. 

“Yerily the dog hath eaten dirt; so may 
confusion devour all the sons of evil !” said 
Abdallah, as he gave the story of the night’s ad- 
venture, and held up the gory head of the Turk- 
ish leader by the scalp lock which the Mohamme- 
dan leaves uncropped on the closely shaven 
crown, that by it the angel Gabriel may draw 
him out of hell at the day of judgment. 


ADVEJ^TUllES OF TOM KOFER. 


193 


Chapter XI. 



HE next morning at dawn our friends 
were up and preparing to start. Ho- 
hannes cooked the coffee over a fire of 
dry weeds, the water skins were filled with a 
fresh supply of water, the camels were laden, 
and the travellers rode out of camp attended for 
some little distance by a number of mounted 

Arabs, desirous of fulfilling the old adage “ wel- 

> 

come the coming, speed the parting guest.” 

The terrible heats of summer were now 
approaching rapidly, and the air, which had a 
dewy freshness before sunrise, immediately be- 
came dry and scorching when the sun suddenly 
burst, vast and red, above the ocean-like horizon 
of the desert. As ill luck would have it, the 
simoom or southern wind also began to blow, 
adding to the suffering the travelers already ex- 
perienced from the heat. Tom thought his eyes 
would burn with the fire that seemed to rain 
from the cloudless and pitiless sky, and longed 
for the return of night. 

Antelopes could bo seen fleeting in the 
13 



194 


ADVENTURES OF T03I ROFER. 


distance ; francolins or partridges were often 
(lushed, and sometimes a hawk, or wliite headed 
vulture were seen, faint specks circling far up in 
the blue, overhead, watching for a carcass. At 
noon the party came to a halt, and Abdallah, 
producing a small metal cup and a tin box con- 
taining pounded coffee, cooked a few thimblefuls 
of the beverage, and gave each of the travellers a 
taste. Then they rode again until late in the 
evening, when they spread rugs on the ground 
and encamped. Such was the daily routine of 
the journey, varied occasionally by an alarm 
that a wandering party of Arabs was threaten- 
ing the little caravan, or by starting a boar or a 
timid gazelle. Each day grew more wearisome ; 
the horses became jaded, and even the camels 
were back sore with the constant fretting of the 
pack-saddles. It was, therefore, with great 
delight that every one hailed the sight of the walls 
and minarets of Mosool looming in the distance. 

“Praise be to God, the most merciful!” 
said the Shekh with fervor, the rest of the Arabs 
joining with him in devout exclamations, such 
as are abundant on the lips of Orientals on every 
occasion, leading those who are not well ac- 


ADVENTURES OF TOM RORER. 


105 


quainted with them into the idea that they are * 
very pious, which is by no means the fact, 
eastern religion having very little to do with the 
heart or the actions of life. 

Hot, hot, hot, such was the state of Mosool 
at this time. The inhabitants were already 
beginning to betake themselves to the subter- 
ranean rooms which many occupy during the 
W'arni season, and our travellers, to escape catch- 
ing the fevers of that district, were obliged to 
make their stay a short one. 

Abdallah and his Arabs were now dis- 
missed with a liberal backsheesh or present of 
money, in addition to the sum stipulated. Back- 
sheesh is the word the stranger hears most often 
in the East ; nothing can be transacted without 
an endless repetition of that magic word ; every 
bargain must be clinched by the everlasting 
backsheesh. Tom purchased of the Shekh, as a 
souvenir of his desert friend, a small Damascus 
dagger with wavy lines flowing through the 
steel, and provided with a ruby-mounted hilt of 
ivory and a sheath richly chased in silver and 
gold. The Shekh swore that he had bought it 
at Damascus, but most probably he had taken it 


19G 


ADVENTUIIES OF TOM IlOPER. 


from some ill-fated traveler whom he had robbed 
and murdered. This was partly evident from 
the low price he set on the article. Unfortu- 
nately Tom had it stolen from him on his way to 
Bagdad, much to his regret. 

In company with Mr. Rassam the English 
consul and Mr. Marsh, a young missionary of 
the American Board who was stationed at that 
time in Mosool, Turrell and Tom crossed the 
Tigris in the cool of the morning on a bridge of 
boats, and galloped over to Kooyunjik and Neby 
Yunus, the site of the far-famed and magnificent 
city of Nineveh of which you have read so often 
in the book of Jonah and other parts of the 
Bible. Sennacherib, who went against Jeru- 
salem in the reign of Hezekiah and had one hun- 
dred and eighty-five thousand of his army slain 
in one night by the angel of the Lord, was king 
of Assyria, and his capital was Nineveh, which 
was so vast that Jonah tells us it contained of 
infants alone one hundred and twenty thousand. 
This vast city is now but a group of mounds, 
which, until of late years, were supposed to be 
masses of undistinguishable ruins. But a num- 
ber of Erenchmcn and Englishmen, of whom 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


107 


tlic most celebrated is Mr. Layard, have em- 
ployed a great many Arabs to excavate these 
mounds ; and there the palaces of the A.^syrian 
kings have been found buried under the earth ; 
their walls are profusely adorned with colossal 
statues of winged bulls, human-headed eagles or 
lions, and other grotesque forms ; and more in- 
teresting still, on these walls are carved, on 
marble slabs, scenes from the most celebrated 
events in the history of Assyria, many of them rep- 
resenting events related in Scripture : with these 
are numerous inscriptions in a kind of pointed 
or arrow-head-shaped writing, called cuneiform. 
This, after immense labor, has been mastered by 
able linguists and many of the inscriptions in this 
now" forgotten language have been translated. 

All this, as you may readily believe, was 
very interesting to our friends, who regretted 
that the shortness of their stay obliged them to 
give but a hurried glance at the excavations. 
But many of the most interesting sculptures 
have been sent by Mr. Layard to England, 
and arc now in the British Museum in London, 
where Tom has since thoroughly studied them, 
during liis second visit to England. 


198 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER 


As soon as all their arrangements could 
be completed, Turrell and Tom went on board 
tlie raft on which they were to float down the 
Tigris to Bagdad. This raft, like all the rafts 
of the Tigris, consisted of planks supported 
by inflated goat-skins on which they were laid, 
and on it was erected a sort of tent of felt to 
protect the travelers from the heat by day and 
the miasma arising from the marshy shores at 
night. Slowly down the current the raft glided 
day after day by low shores swarming with 
Bedween robbers, and not unfrequently trodden 
by the stealthy foot of the lion. Often the site 
of a celebrated city was passed, of which nothing 
remains but a mound or perhaps only a frag- 
ment of a brick wall or a little pottery. Lonely 
and melancholy was the land, monotonous was 
the voyage down the broad, sluggish stream. 
Our travelers were in constant dread of the 
Ambs and the “shakes” or fever and ague^ 
But they fortified themselves against the last 
b}’^ quinine, and kept their powder dry for the 
former, and as every thing must have an end, so 
did the voyage on the raft of goat-skins. 

One morning, as they glided around a 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


199 


l)en(l in the river, a faint scent of orange 
blossoms was borne on the low breeze from the 
shore, vast groves of palms waved their feathery 
foliage against the cloudless blue of the sky, the 
monotonous yet pleasing creaking of the water 
wheels was heard that were raising water to irri- 
gate the gardens, and herons or pelicans were seen 
standing like statues on the brink, their white 
plumage reflected in the placid stream. Soon 
minarets were distinguished gleaming above the 
groves, and domes gilded and glowing against 
the sky like suns dazzled the vision of the 
travellers, and when the mouldering walls of 
Bagdad loomed in sight, Tom for awhile forgot 
the heat and fatigue of the voyage. The glow- 
ing tales of the Arabian Nights, which had 
beguiled so many hours of his boyhood, came 
back to his memory with the vividness of reality. 
The snow-white dome which, on the right bank 
of the Tigris opposite Bagdad, rose over the 
grave of the Sid Zobeide the queen of Haroon 
al Resheed, capped the climax to his enthu- 
siasm. 

“Three cheers for Ilaroon al Resheed and 
Sinbad the Sailor!” cried Tom, waving his hat 


200 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


in the air; “ I ’ll bet any thing Ave shall see old 
Ilaroon himself reclining on his silken-cnshioned 
divan as he did a thousand years ago ; and who 
knows, perhaps he’ll send out Giafar himself to 
invite us to a royal banquet. 

“Keep cool, Tom;” replied Turrell, wh» 
was lying in the shade of the tent on the raft, 
“you’ll grow older as you grow wiser, or rather, 
you’ll grow wiser as you grow older. Haven’t 
you seen enough of this broiling country yet to 
knoAY that an Oriental city looks better on the 
outside than on the inside ?” 

“Pshaw! Avhat do you want to throAV cold 
Avater on my enthusiasm for ? let me enjoy it as 
long as I can ; and Avhat if I am more ardent and 
fanciful than you are ? there’s no danger but 
Avhat I’ll be practical and prosaic enough before 
I’m much older. Can’t you let a felloAV enjoy 
himself Avhile he can ?” 

“Beg your pardon; I’m sure I didn’t 
mean any thing by it ; but hang it, I’m about 
tired of this everlasting gliding, gliding, gliding 
down this yelloAv river, and of all these tumble 
doAvn cities and their ragged, filthy rabble of 
vagabonds and beggars ; and shall be mighty 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROFER. 


201 


glad to be on the deck of a good ship again 
breathing in the salt sea air. Hand us the 
tobacco, that’s a good boy.” 

“Well, it is, pretty much as you say, and 
yet, with all its thousand faults, I’ve got a sort 
of liking for the East ; every thing so reminds 
you of the past, and then these beggars do look 
so picturesque, and behind an old wall you so 
often find such a jolly little garden with its 
musical fountain, that I must say I ’ve become 
a regular Oriental in my liking for this forsaken 
country.” 

“I dare say I shall enjoy talking it all 
over by and by as much as you will, but just 
now I say enough is as good as a feast.” 

On landing at Bagdad, our friends found 
it very much as Turrell anticipated ; it was no 
exception to all the other towns they had seen 
in the East. The splendor which it had boasted 
in former times is now all gone like a dream, 
and as one^ strolls languidly through the narrow 
lanes, and dark but ruindus bazaars or markets, 
he finds it difficult to realize the magnificence 
which so many poets have sung. , 

The bazaars are about the only objects 


202 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


that recall in an}?- degree the bustle and richness 
of ancient Bagdad. They consist of long arcades 
with vaulted roofs and booths ranged on each 
side, in which the vender -sits cross-legged, 
counting the beads of his rosary, smoking, sleep- 
ing and sometimes chaifering with a purchaser. 
During the forenoon the city is tolerably alive, 
but in the heat of afternoon business ceases, and 
sleep closes the eyelids of the lazy populace. In 
these bazaars Tom saw men from all parts of 
the East, of many an ancient “ tribe, kindred, 
and tongue,” and dressed in every variety of 
time-honored costume. The women were clothed 
when in the street, in draperies of vivid colors, 
embroidered sometimes with gold thread, veils 
of horsehair effectually concealing the features, 
but Tom fancied that he sometimes saw a face 
indistinctly through the lattices of the har^m 
windows, and the gleam of black eyes peering at 
the strange Frangees or Europeans. 

However, Turrell and Tom were obliged 
to make their stay in the city of the Arabian 
Nights even shorter than they antieipated, 
which, on the whole, they did not regret, so anx- 
ious were they to escape the heats of that region. 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


203 


There was a small English steamer there, which 
used to make the voyage between Bagdad and 
Bussora about once a month ; and she was to 
start the day after their arrival. Had they been 
a day later, they would probably have had to re- 
main there several weeks. 

The travelers would much have liked 
visiting the ruins of Babylon, that famous city 
which was forty miles in circuit, surrounded by 
stupendous walls, and celebrated for its vast 
palaces and the tower of Belus, the remains of 
which tower are now traceable under the vast 
mound of Birs Nimrood, about two days’ jour- 
ney from Bagdad, on the river Euphrates. But 
the heat was now so fearful, that travelling over 
the marsh lands between the two rivers would 
be productive of much suffering, for any who 
^yere not acclimated. This part of the journey 
would have been far more enjoyable could it 
have been made early in the spring. 

As they were riding down to the steamer 
on white donkeys, jostling passers by here and 
tliere in the narrow streets, Tom’s donkey ran 
against a man dressed in a semi-European 
costume, As the man hastily moved out of the 


204 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROFER. 


way, looking around as he did so, Tom thought 
he perceived something familiar in his face and 
figure ; the recognition was mutual. 

“Well, I declare ! is that you, Nicholas ?” 

“ Mr. liopere, have I ze distinguished pleazure 
to see you in Bagdad ?” 

“How under the canopy did jmu ever get 
here, I should like to know ?” 

“Oh, I came vit von Inglese milordos. 
He gone and left me here vidout von parA, in 
dis vile place. I got ze fever, and every day I 
tink I s’all die.” 

Nicholas did look as if he told the truth 
this time. He was yellow as saffron, and al- 
most as thin as a shadow, and his teeth chat- 
tered as if it were midwinter. 

“Aye, aye,” said Turrell, “yon. do look 
the worse for wear. But I dare say you took 
good care to line your pocket before you were 
left behind.” 

“No sar, no sar, not von penny. Nicholas 
is poor as ” ‘ 

“Well, well, I’m sorry for you, though 
you did try to play us a scurvy trick ; there ’s a 
trifle for you. But let me never see you again, 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


205 


or by thunder ! ” Turrell’s anger at the 

recollection of Nicholas’ villany was, kindling 
rapidly, and he spurred by him without taking 
further notice of him. 

“T’ank you, t’ank you, sar ; you no vant a 
valet, eh sarV Mistere Turrell, Mistere Eop6-e- 
e-re ! gentlemans, good gentlemans, vait von 
moment ; I vant spik to you-u-u-u !” But they 
disappeared around a corner, and the old sinner 
was too weak to keep pace with them. One is 
often surprised in this way, by coming across a 
familiar face in the most unexpected and some- 
times disagreable manner, when travelling 
abroad. 

The puffing, wheezy little steamer was 
chafing at her moorings, when Tom stepped 
aboard, followed soon after by Turrell, who had 
stopped a moment to crush a centiped, which he 
felt crawling up his leg, but had shaken oft’, just 
in time to prevent a deadly sting. The cen- 
tiped or scolopendra is from three to five inches 
in length, and copper-colored. Its sting is often 
fatal. • It was not a very rare thing for Tom to 
have a scorpion or centiped drop from the ceil- 
ing on the couch where he was sleeping, or 


206 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


shake one out of his boot, before putting it on in 
the morning. But he was never stung, nor 
does it often happen, although Tom did see a 
camel-driver in a village in Asia Minor, whose 
leg was swelled to twice the natural size by a 
scorpion sting, which caused very violent pain, 
although the man eventually recovered. The 
scorpions of that region are either dark-green or 
black, the latter being the most deadly : more 
dangerous and disgusting than either, is the 
tarantula, a huge spider covered with long hairs 
and moving rapidly by long jumps. But even 
these our friends saw charmers in Mosool hand- 
ling with apparent impunity, together with lit- 
tle copper-colored and venomous asps. 

The journey down the Tigris in the 
steamer was of little note. A short distance 
ai)ove Bussora, the confluence or junction of the 
Euphrates and the Tigris was passed. At 
Bussora the travellers went aboard a crazy 
native coaster for Busheer, on the Persian gulf, 
wliere they expected to find a vessel for Bombay. 
This sort of travelling reminded Tom of the 
wanderings of Sinbad the Sailor. Life and in- 
cident in those countries are still as described 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


207 


ill the Arabian Nights, excepting of course 
whatever is supernatural. 

At Busheer Tom was for a few days in 
Persia ; but he noticed very little difference 
between Busheer and the parts of the Turkish 
Empire he had just left, except that crafty, 
black-bearded, cruel-looking Persians were here, 
perhaps, more abundant, with their high, coni- 
cal sheep skin caps. What little Tom saw of the 
Persians was not in their favor, and he did not 
care to continue the acquaintance. However 
noble some of them may appear on the pages of 
ancient history, it is certain that a more detesta- 
ble race of consummate scoundrels is not to be 
found in Eastern Asia at the present day. 

Here Turrell and Tom were for some days 
in a state of perplexity, as to what course they 
should take. Two plans were discussed, one 
was to take passage on a vessel bound to Bom- 
bay, with a cargo of dates, horses, etc., and visit 
Hindostan first, going from Bombay to Delhi, 
and thence, dowui the Ganges to Calcutta. 
The other plan, whicl^ seemed fully as pleasant, 
owing to the extreme heat of the season, was to 
accept the invitation of the captain of the Dianay 


208 


ADVENTUllES OF TOM KOPEK. 


East India Company’s sloop of war, which had 
been cruising about the Persian gulf, but was 
now ordered to proceed at once to the China 
seas, where the Malay pirates were reported as 
committing fresh depredations on merchant ves- 
sels. The Diana would probably touch at 
various ports in that region, where the travellers’ 
could disembark, and return thence to Calcutta, 
if they chose. 

The latter plan was- the one linally adopted, 
and when the Diana was to sail, nohannes-, who 
liad accompanied th6 travelers thus far, was paid 
up, with a good backsheesh in addition. He had 
served them with unusual fiiithfulness for an 
oriental, and now took farewell of his masters 
with much sorrow : kissing the hand of each, 
and bowing low with many salaams or saluta- 
tions, and with not a few tears, he saw them 
embark. 

All sail was made, and under a stiff breeze 
the Diana stood down the gulf. The wind 
chopping around dead ahead, they were obliged 
to beat out of the gulf, approaching in one of 
the long tacks the isle of Bahreen, on the coast 
of Arabia, an island long famous for its pearl 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


209 


fisheries. From the gulf the Diana held her 
course for Cape Comorin, with the usual variety 
or rather monotony of an ordinary sea voyage. 
But great as were the noonday heats of the 
tropics, Tom found it an agreeable change to be 
tossing once more on the ocean, after the tedious 
journey down the Tigris. 

Captain Eingbolt was a jolly specimen of 
a good seaman, well browned by the heat of the 
seas, where he had spent so many years. He 
had with him his wife, a plump, black-eyed, 
rosy and cheery little French woman, who spoke 
English almost as easily as French, and had 
made her husband’s ship her home, ever since 
he had been promoted to a command. 

In the evening, when the sun had gone 
down, leaving a vivid orange tint fading olf into 
green and purple in the western horizon, while 
the moon rose in the east, silvering the tops of 
the waves, and whitening the broad sails aloft, 
how delightful it was then to pace the quarter 
deck or lean over the talfrail, talking of distant 
lands and spinning yarns. One evening, in the 
dog watches, when they were thus gossipping in 

the moonlight. Captain Kingbolt, looking over the 
14 


210 


ADVENTURES OF T03I ROREK. 


side of the vessel, saw a huge shark following in 
the wake, a very common sight in warm seas. 
Directing one of the “boys” to bait a hook and 
line, and throw it overboard for the monster, he 
remarked, “I never see one of those fellows, Jjut 
I think of how they used to try to get hold of 
me, in the autumn of ’48.” 

“ How was that ?” said Turrell. 

“ I ’ve told the yarn so many times, it ’s 
absurd to reel it off again.” 

“ I beg you will do us the favor to repeat 
it,” said Tom. “It will be new for us, at 
least.” 

“I’ll tell it, then, if you can get Mrs. 
Kingbolt’s consent, for the 'story is about how 
she became my wife.” 

“Oh certainly, if it will be of any happi- 
ness to you, gentlemen.” 

THE CAPTAIK’S STORY. 

“Well then, as I said before,” began Cap- 
tain Ringbolt, “it was in the autumn of ’48 
that it happened. I was first lieutenant of the 
Albatross brig, ten guns, of the East India Com- 
pany. The brig was bound from Singapore to Ma- 
dras. She had been on duty on that coast protect- 


ADVENTUKES OF TOM ROPER. 


211 


iug our commerce, the very business we are after 
now. ' The brig was getting old, was sadly out 
of repairs, and her crew were pretty well used 
up, so we were ordered home to recruit. As Ave 
were beating out of the harbor of Singapore, 
while the men Avere catting the anchor, some sea 
running at the time, a wave washed off Jack 
Simms, Avho was outside on the anchor. Imme- 
diately we hove to, and lowered away the gig, but 
it Avas of no use. He had probably struck his 
head in falling, which had stunned him, and 
AA'hen picked up he was dead. Every one looked 
sober when his body Avas brought abbard, and 
all shook their heads, as if this accident boded 
no good to the voyage. 

“‘No, Mr. Kingbolt, you needn’t tell me 
it ’s only superstition,’ said Jenkins, our second 
lieutenant, ‘I know better; didn’t I dream 
about just this very thing last night ? The jolly 
Albatross Avill be mighty lucky, if she makes her 
port after this. You are young and sceptical, 
but I tell you, Mr. Ringbolt, when you ’ve sailed 
as long as I have, you ’ll think as I do. ’ 

“ I • pooh-poohed him, and turned on my 
heel Avith Ioav Avhistle, but am not ashamed to 


212 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


say that I did not feel altogether as easy as I 
tried to appear. 

“We had been out about four days, when, 
being the officer of the deck, about noon, it 
blowing fresh at the time, I thought, when we 
rose on the top of a sea, I saw something white 
fluttering about a mile ahead of us on the lee 
bow. The sun was shining right on it, and it 
looked pretty white ; at first I took it for the 
wing of a gull, but it was too far ofi* for that ; 
then I took it for a distant sail, but then again 
it was too near for that. ‘ Hand up the glass, ’ 
said I to the cabin boy, and I took a squint at 
it through the telescope. As soon as I could 
get it in range, I saw it wa/S a rag about the 
size of a man’s shirt, fluttering from the end of 
an oar that was fixed upright in what appeared 
at that distance to be a small raft. I could not 
at first discover if any one was on the raft, but 
I kept the vessel away a couple of points, and 
in a few minutes we bore down and made out 
that there was at least one man on the raft, who 
still had strength enough left to wave his hand. 
When we came up to it, we threw our foretopsail 
aback, hove to, and lowered a boat. * 


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ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


213 


“The boat came back, bringing the sur- 
vivor ; two corpses were left lashed to the raft, 
where, poor fellows, they had died that very 
morning. The man we had picked up proved 
to be M. Lemarie, master of the French bark 
Hortense^ on her way to the Mauritius and Mar- 
seilles. The vessel had taken fire and burnt to 
the water’s edge ; the long boat had been con- 
suined, the yawl was swamped in launching, 
and all hands had taken to a small raft, trumped 
up in a hurry, with only a bag of biscuit and a 
bottle or two of cognac. The sea washed olf a 
number, and the survivors one by one dropped 
off. Three were left, when on the sixth morn- 
ing the Albatross hove in sight, but two breathed 
their last, before we could pick them up. Le- 
marie had strength enough left to take off the 
shirt from one who had just died, and tied it to 
an oar, which he stuck between the spars of the 
raft. And so he was saved. 

“Poor man! he was. pretty well gone; 
])rown as leather, and thin as a skeleton, from 
exposure and starvation ; but he had an iron 
constitution, and by a course of judicious diet 
we soon had him growing hale and hearty again. 


214 ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 

ITis gratitude for his rescue was unbounded, and 
he often spoke with delight of the prospect of 
again seeing the friends and home which he had 
given up as lost. 

“ But we now had other things to think of. 
It might have been about ten days after this, 
the Albatross being somewhere about eleven 
north latitude, longitude eighty-six, when the 
barometer began to fall rapidly ; up to that time 
the winds had been generally light with calms, 
although latterly it had been blowing in squalls 
from the west, and we had noticed the sun more 
red and the stars at night looked large and 
misty. What made it worse, it was about the 
first quarter of the moon, earlj' in October, about 
the time for the change of the monsoon or 
trade wind, and we knew we were liable to have 
foul weather. We had hoped to reach Madras 
'before the monsoon changed, but had failed to 
come to time ; and here we were in an old, 
leaky brig — she leaked like a basket — with a 
hurricane threatening us at any moment. In 
preparation for this, we had a few days before 
stowed the old sails which we started with, and 
bent on a bran new suit. 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROFER. 


215 


“Well, as I said before, the mercury 
began to fall rapidly in the afternoon, and there 
was a dirty look in the offing, gradually spread- 
ing overhead. We were under royals, but the 
sea was oily calm, the brig rolling channels 
under, on the long swells, the sails flapping 
against the masts like thunder. It had just 
struck seven bells, when I sent down for Cap- 
tain Dale ; he came on deck at once, in his shirt 
sleeves, — he had been taking his siesta, and 
says he to me, 

“ ‘ Mr. Ringbolt, we are in for it now. 
Call all hands to quarters, and take in sail. 
There’s no time to be lost.’ 

“ Almost while he was speaking, the sky 
overhead grew black as ink, and the lightning 
began to play wickedly in the offing ; and there 
was the low roll of thunder coming over the 
water, and the strange muttering of the ap- 
proaching hurricane in the rigging like the wail 
of lost spirits. In anticipation of this, I had al- 
ready taken in the royals, and manned all the 
halliards and downhauls, and at the word, the 
sails came down on the run. We struck the 
royal yards, and the men were close reefing the 


21G 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


topsails and courses wlien the wind struck us, 
accompanied at the same instant by a blinding 
sheet of flame, that barred the whole heavens 
with forked fires, and was followed by a peal 
that shook every timber in the ship. 

'‘As soon as I could see again distinctly, I 
found the Albatross heeled over almost to her 
rail, the sea breaking wildly over her, the reefed 
topsails flying to leeward in rags, and half a 
dozen poor fellows shaken from the yards into 
the foam. Never before nor since have I seen 
the seas running so wild. 

“We tried to heave to, but it was out of 
the question to spread a yard of canvas ; the 
wind split it like paper. There was nothing but 
to run under bare poles, and trust to good luck^ 

“The lightning flashed incessantly; the 
yards were tipped with St. Elmo’s candles ; 3 mu 
know what they are ? electric lights settling on 
the spars in a hurricane at sea. The roll of the 
thunder never ceased, and until about midnight 
the wind seemed' to rise. The brig labored 
frightfnll}", and we expected any moment to 
have the counter stove in. About nine o’clock, 
when the gale was at the worst, on sound- 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


217 


ing the pumps, we found there were three feet 
of water in the hold, and rising rapidly. 
No impression could be made on the leak by 
constant pumping, and the order was given to 
heave the guns overboard. This lightened the 
vessel somewhat, but it was a gone case with 
her. We cut away the masts, but it was too 
late. The brave old hulk had, as it were, sprung 
a leak all over ; she had started some of her rot- 
ten timbers, and the water gained on us fear- 
fully. The effect was soon apparent ; the vessel 
settled lower in the water, rolling heavily, and 
the seas now swept her fore and aft. One of 
these surges washed off half a score of fellows 
who had lashed themselves to the stump of the 
mainmast and the weather bulwarks. Soon 
after the wheel and rudder-head were carried 
away, and the brig was then entirely unman- 
ageable. 

“Captain Dale had been killed early in the 
gale, by a falling spar, and the command, so far 
as there was now any command, was mine. 
The quarter boats had been stove or carried 
away by the sea, and there only remained the 
long boat ; but this, under the circumstances, it 


218 


ADVENTUr.ES OF TOM EOPER. 


was impossible to get out ; so we contrived to 
rig up a raft with great difficulty. It was now 
towards morning. The gale had blown itself 
out, or at any rate had lulled, and as the sun 
rose, red and misty, over the frothing waters, 
we launched the raft. Our crew had been 
greatly reduced by sickness and casualties, and 
there were not above five and thirty to provide 
for now. There was room on the raft for about 
twenty of these. The men, to their credit be it 
said, behaved like true Britons, obeying orders 
to the last, except two or three Lascars or 
native seamen, one of whom I had to brain with 
a marlinspike to quell all signs of insubordination. 

“Well, the raft pushed off, and lay by us 
by a line thrown out astern ; and we who re- 
mained, seeing how it now blew with less vio- 
lence, and the sea broke over us less frequently, 
set ourselves to another effort to get out the 
long boat ; and we succeeded, much being due 
for it to Captain Lemarie, whom we had picked 
up, and who now fell to, and gave us very effi- 
cient help. 

“ The raft and the boat were each provi- 
ded with a studding sail, an oar or two, some 

/ 


ADVENTUr.ES OF TOM ROPEE. 


210 


salt junk, hard tack, and a confoundedly small 
supply of water. The men, of course, saved 
nothing but the clothes they stood in. Besides 
these there was a case of spirits on the raft, and 
a compass in the long boat. The raft was in 
cl:arge of Mr. Jenkins, the second lieutenant. 

“We pushed off just in time. The ship’s 
decks were even with the water, and we had not 
got three cables’ length from her, when she gave 
a lurch to port and went down bodily, and that 
was the last we saw of the brave old Albatross, 
and there we were specks in mid ocean, expect- 
ing to share her fate in a few days at farthest. 

“As well as I could reckon, the Andaman 
Isles were the nearest land to us, but the trade 
winds now being about to blow from east-north- 
east, would retard our progress towards the is- 
lands, but Avould enable us to keep a strait 
course for the southern coast of India, besides 
our being thus in the track of eastward bound 
vessels. So we steered about due west, the long 
boat taking lead, with the raft in tow. The sea 
was still pretty high, but we made shift to keep 
ailoat. The second day the men on the raft 
broke into the case of spirits and as you may 


220 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


believe, th«y were soon jolly drunk ; after this 
they came to blows, and two or three of them 
went overboard, and that was the last of them. 
This sobered the rest a little, and they huddled 
on the raft, sullen and shivering with the spray 
and rain, which fell in squalls. The men in the 
long boat were better behaved ; small rations of 
biscuit and water were served out twice a day, 
the stores, what there was of them, being stowed 
in the stern sheets where Lema.rie and I sat. 
He was a man of great muscular strength and 
unfailing presence of mind, and proved of most 
efficient aid in awing those who were disposed 
to be insubordinate. 

“The third day, towards night, it came on 
to blow a gale of wind. The sea ran frightfully 
high, and we had to keep baling to prevent the boat 
from swamping. It was so dark that we could 
not discern the raft except in the flashes of light- 
ning. It might have been about three in the 
morning, when I felt the tow-rope slacken and 
come home, and, looking astern with the next 
flash, I could descry nothing of the raft. The 
tow-line had parted, and the raft was never seen 
again. 


y 


c 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 221 

“The wind fell somewhat when the sun 
rose, but the exposure had been too much for one 
poor fellow who had been sick some days. At 
daylight he lay dead, sitting on the thwart, and 
his head resting on the gunwale as if he were 
asleep. We threw him overboard, and it Avas n’t 
ten seconds scarcely before saAv a shark roll 
up his ugly white jaws and swallow the corpse ; 
and from that moment the sharks never left us. 
They kept by us day and night. We neA'^er 
looked over the side pf the boat, but there AA^as 
one of the greedy monsters leisurely keeping up 
Avith us, and waiting for the next body to be 
thrown over for his breakfast. 

“But Avhy go through the story of the 
horrible sulferings Ave endured for the next ten 
days. Koav and then we saAv a sail gleaming in 
the horizon ; once a ship came Avithin a mile 
of us, then Avent off on the other tack. Let us 
hope they did not see us jumping up in the boat, 
and Avaving our hats as Ave yelled at the to}) of 
our voices ; for dreadful AAmuld be their doom, if 
they saAV our situation, and voluntarily left us 
to our fate. We had noAv been fifteen days out. 
Of all our boat’s crew, only three remained, Tom 


222 


ADYENTUIIES OF TOM HOPEH. 

Train the boatswain, Lemaric, and myself. For 
the past three days we had only had quarter of 
a biscuit a piece, and a thimble full of water 
twice a day. When it rained we sucked our 
clothes and in that way slaked our parched 
throats a little. 

“Well, Tom Train died that day. Eemarie 
and I gazed on the corpse, thinking whether we 
might not keep alive a few days longer by eating 
some of the flesh that lay so ghastly in the 
bottom of the boat. But we could not yet 
stomach it ; a faint hope still lingered in our 
breasts ; and with what little strength remained 
we managed to push the body into the water, 
where, of course, it was immediately swallowed by 
a school of those infernal water demons, the sharks. 

“After this, from a sort of mutual distrust 
of each other, we, Lemarie and I, now stationed 
ourselves as far apart as we could ; he crawled to 
the bow, where he held on as best he could 
when the boat tossed, I sat in the stern sheets. 
We did not dare to face each other, but when 
we spoke looked askance ; each felt that the 
other would probably make an attempt on his life, 
or at least feed on him when he was dead. 

/ 


ADVENTURES OF TOM RORER. 


223 


“ Before this we had agreed that if either 
survived the other, and should be picked up, he 
should visit the friends of the one who died and 
give his parting messages. Lemarie was to 
visit my parents if I died first, and I was to 
visit his wife if he died first, and tell her of his 
fate, and that he remembered her to the last 
hour of his life, and now we frequently reminded 
each other of this promise, although the chance 
that either would live to tell the tale was in- 
finitesimally small. ‘ Swear, Kingbolt, that you 
will keep your promise,’ were Lemarie’s last 
words to me. I afterwards heard him mutter- 
ing indistinctly to himself. It was now the morn- 
ing of the seventeenth day. During the night fear- 
ful visions had constantly flitted before my eyes. 
I fell into frequent fits of fainting or dozing, I 
could scarcely tell which. Death’s skeleton 
form seemed hovering over the bow of the boat. 
The burning rays of the rising sun called me 
back to consciousness of my fearful anguish. 
As I tried to raise myself on my elbow, I saw 
that Lemarie was gone. Either he had fallen 
over in a fit or had voluntarily plunged into the 
sea and put an end to his suflerings. At the 


224 


ADVEOTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


same moment my eyes fell on a sight which 
seemed at first hut the mockeiy of a dream. 
Within hail, with her sails aback, a ship was 
lowering a boat. Overcome, I sank down, and 
knew nothing more until I was lifted on her 
deck and carried into the cabin. 

‘‘To make a long story short, after lin- 
gering at death’s door a long time, I managed, 
thank God, to get on my sea legs again. Little 
by little I gathered strength ; and by the time 
the white cliffs of old England hove in sight — the 
vessel that picked me up was the Loorie, Aber- 
deen clipper, with a cargo of tea and silks from 
Canton — I was myself again. 

“On stepping ashore, I reported at the 
Honorable East India Company’s headquarters ; 
they had heard by way of Suez that the Alba- 
tross had probably foundered, and had given me 
up for lost, as well they might. Eunning up to 
visit my friends in Yorkshire, I received orders 
to report in four months at Bombay. I started 
for India by Avay of Paris, Marseilles and Suez, 
stopping on the way at Avignon, in the south of 
France, to see the widow of my poor friend, 
Captain Leraarie. 


ADVliNTUKKS OF TOM llOFEK. 


225 


“ A nice, quiet old x)lace is Avignon, on 
the Ehone, with its ivy mantled walls and 
quaint churches. On the day I arrived, after 
lunch, I sallied out to call on Madame Lemarie. 
The house was in Rue something — well, I forget 
the name of the street, hut when I knocked at 
the door, Madame was at the church of Santa 
Clara, for it was some saint’s day or other. As I 
was returning to the hotel, after visiting the 
Cathedral, in weathering a sharp corner, I ran 
plump’against a small lady dressed in mourning, 
with black eyes, and red cheeks — Mrs. Ringbolt 
answers somewhat to the description. After 
mutual apologies, I kept on my course to the 
hotel, intending to leave by the diligence next 
morning. But in the evening the waiter handed 
me a note from Madame Lemarie, expressing 
her regret at missing my call, and hoping I 
would give her another opportunity to hear the 
account of her lamented husband’s last days ; I 
had stated on the card which I had left at the 
door the circumstances that induced me to call. 

“I waited on Madame that very evening, 
and found to my entertainment that she was the 
plump little woman I had met in the morning. 


226 ADVENTUIIES OF TOM KOrEK. 

Whether it was the way in which I told the 
narrative of poor Captain Lemarie’s sufferings, 
or what it was I cannot tell, but Madame 
seemed to find my society very agreeable, and, 
truth to tell, I neither left Avignon the next 
morning nor the next week. And when, nearly 
a month after my first arrival, I finally started 
for Marseilles and Suez, the fair widow accom- 
panied me as Mrs. Ringbolt, with whom I be- 
lieve, gentlemen, you are already acquainted.” 

‘'Bravo, that’s one way to get a wife, to 
be sure,” said Turrell. 

“ I for one, am greatly obliged to you. 
Captain Ringbolt, for the story you have told 
us,” added Tom. 

Madame, who had been in tears during 
l)art of the narrative, now looked more smiling, 
and just as the watch struck four bells proposed 
adjourning to a little supper below. 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


227 


Chapter XII. 

Diana touched at to re- 

victual, and after a brief stay, pro- 
ceeded to her destination. The voyage 
■was unattended with any stirring incidents, 
being somewhat lengthened by a succession 
of light winds, so that our friends were nearly 
broiled with the torrid heats ; anoEier cause 
made Tom still more impatient for the ship 
to reach the coast of China. The Union, Cap- 
tain Veazie, if ordinarily successful in her voy- 
age to Canton, would very likely have sailed 
thence for home, before Tom could see his friends 
there, unless the Diana should make better time 
than she had done so far. As day by day went 
by, Tom grew more impatient, and sometimes 
found it difficult to control his vexation. Finally, 
he made up his mind to be disappointed, and 
now looked forward to the possibility, which, it 
must be said, was but a faint possibility, of 
speaking the Union on her homeward course. 
It is strange ’vvhat slender hopes will sometimes 
delude one under keen disappointment. 

However, Tom was destined to have his 


228 


ADVENTUr.ES OF TOM ROFEK 


hope realized this time, but in a way he little 
expected. Passing ' through the Straits of 
Malacca, and coasting along the south of Cochin 
China, the sloop-of-war now headed for Hong- 
kong, where she was to join the fleet cruising in 
those waters, and receive further orders. 

The Diana was now in waters infested by 
piratical Chinese junks, and the sharp, swift, 
clipper-like prahus of the Malay corsairs, who 
creep out from their nooks among the islands of 
the Indian Archipelago, and pounce upon an}' 
foreign merchant vessel that the treacherous 
winds have left becalmed and powerless to 
escape. For this reason vessels trading in those 
regions usually carry a couple of brass pieces or 
more, and a small armory of cutlasses and mus- 
kets, although they are not often of much use in 
beating off a fleet of junks. The only way to 
keep the coast clear is to have men of war cruis- 
ing around on the watch, to protect commerce 
and chastise the pirates. Many bloody piratical 
tragedies have occurred in the China Sea in past 
years, and it is not yet, by any means, rendered 
perfectly secure for merchant vessels. 

The Diana, as we have said, was now head- 


ADVENTURES OF T03I ROPER. 


229 


ing north, and was close under the coast of 
Hainan, when Tom was awakened at dawn, by 
the boom of a cannon coming over the water, 
apparently two miles away. Hastily dressing 
himself, he went on deck, where he was soon 
joined by Turrell. It was a dead calm, and 
rather foggy ; but the mist was now slowly 
rising, disclosing the coast indistinctly, and a 
headland gray in the fog, from behind which 
proceeded the firing, which was now quite brisk. 

The captain was in consultation with the first 
lieutenant as to what it might be, but they were 
not long in arriving at the conclusion, that it 
must be some unfortunate vessel attacked by 
pirates. It was promptly decided that the 
Diana must go to the rescue, hut how was she 
to do it without even a catspaw to fill the sails. 
But a slight flaw now seemed to come out of the 
southward, or rather the wind had the appear- 
ance of being about to rise from that direction, 
slightly fluttering the dogvane ; and every stitch 
of canvas that would draw was spread, and 
water was thrown over the sails by the hose of 
the ship’s pump, in order to make them catch 
the breeze l)ctter. It was of no use however, 


I 


230 ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 

for the breeze died away as silently as it came, 
and a profound calm settled again over the deep. 
In the meantime the firing continued, but it 
was evident that the vessel attacked must 
probably soon be overcome and a rescue, if 
attempted at all, must be attempted at once by 
the boats. 

Volunteers were called to man the boats. It 
is needless to say that with the love of daring 
and adventure characteristic of British tars, all 
crowded forward for participation in the fun. 
From these a sufficient number were chosen, 
and the boatswain’s whistle now piped loud 
and lively through the ship, as the boats were 
lowered and manned. 

Turrell and Tom entered enthusiastically into 
the spirit of the thing, and chivalrously de- 
termined, without hesitation, to join the board- 
ing party. Tom, it must be said, had a slight 
tinge of anxiety mingled with his desire for the 
adventure ; he had a faint suspicion or presenti- 
ment, that the vessel attacked might be the 
Union, although not very probable. They re- 
quested and obtained permission to go in the 
first boat that was called away. The next boat 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 231 

came close after, speedily followed by the next ; 
the launch bringing up the rear with a small 
swivel on its bow. The race for precedence in 
reaching the scene of action was now very ex- 
citing. The men pulled as for dear life, bending 
to their oars with a regular but rapid movement, 
the boats almost flying over the water. 

“ Pull away, my hearties !” 

“Pive guineas to the boat that gets there 
first !” 

“ Steady she goes ! that ’s it, my lads !” 

These, and similar exclamations were heard 
from one and another of the boats, as they shot 
forward. The second boat gradually forged 
ahead until but half a boat’s length astern of 
the first boat ; but there she stopped ; she could 
not pass her competitor. In this order the 
boats were soon around the promontory, when 
the conflict came into view. The cannonading 
had now nearly ceased, and as the smoke cleared 
away, a ship was seen surrounded by five junks, 
which had been firing as they approached their 
victim, and, although her guns were vigorously 
fought, the enemy had suffercd no material 
damage, and were now preparing to grapple 


232 


ADVENTUllES OF TOM EOrEK. 


with the ship. One of the junks had, in fact, 
just fallen across the bow of the vessel, and the 
pirates were pouring into the ship from her 
bowsprit. 

The galf boom of the ship had been broken 
by a shot, and the peak hung downwards ; a 
flag drooped from it in the languid air, but it 
was impossible to tell of what nation, until 
Tom, who was anxiously scanning it', saw a 
breath of air stir it a little, and blow out the 
folds enough to show its nationality. 

Good heavens !” said he, “ she ’s an Ameri- 
can.” 

“I thought as much from her rig,” said Tur- 
rell. 

“ I hope it ’s not the- Union. 

O dear no ! she ’s more likely to be past 
the straits of Sunda by this time ; never fear,” 
replied Turrell assuringly. 

The boats were by this tfme rapidly near- 
ing the conflict, and the pirates had evidently 
discovered’ them ; for two of them that had not 
yet grappled with the ship now sheered off, and 
were making for the shore as fast as their long 
sweeps could carry them. The launch tired a 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER 


233 


shot at them from the swivel, and started in 
chase in company with the next boat. 

Affairs were therefore in the following posi- 
tion. Three junks were fast to the ship, their 
crews swarming over her sides, and the forward 
boats of the Diana^ in which were our friends, 
were bearing down close at hand, to the rescue ; 
and two junks were flyipg, pursued by the two 
remaining boats of the Diana, the swivel of 
the launch peppering them as it gained on the 
chase. 

As Tom drew nearer the ship, the sounds 
of the affray on the deck grew more and’ more 
distinct, the yells of the savages, and the crack 
of small arms making a discordant and alarm- 
ing din ; and his fears were painfully realized 
when bringing up under the stern of the ship, 
he read the words. Union, Boston. The hor- 
ror of the situation burst on him with a great 
shock ; the blood rushed to his heart, and a 
sudden faintness seized him, which was, however, 
unnoticed by any one, as all were so intent on 
the affair in hand, and this feeling immediately 
gave place in his bosom to a keen thirst to suc- 
cor and avenge his friends. 


234 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROFER. 


“Way enough!” cried the officer of the boat, 
and the men tossed their oars, while the bow 
oarsman, seizing the boathook, grappled the 
main chains, and as the boat came alongside, 
the crew, snatching their cutlasses and boarding 
pikes, clambered up the side of the Union ; but 
not without opposition from some of the tawny 
ruffians, who sought to beat them back, but 
were borne down by the resistless onset, after 
wounding two of the assailants. Turrell was 
lirst on board, followed closely by Tom, although, 
in fact, the boarding was so rapid that all the 
boat’s crew seemed to climb over the bulwarks 
at once, meeting on board the men from the 
other boat, who had taken the opposite side of the 
vessel. 

The pirates, bewildered and panic struck, now 
began to scatter rapidly ; some of them leap- 
ing into the sea, others betaking themselves 
to their junks, two of which immediately cut 
their grappling gear and pushed away, while 
iluite a number still held their ground and 
fought desperately. Through the smoke and 
din of the melee, Tom distinguished Captain 
Vcazic with live or six of his crew begrimmed 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


. 235 


with blood and smoke, fighting near the com- 
panion way on the quarter deck, while a i3ile of 
pirates and sailors lay wounded and dead on the 
deck. Dick was seen grappling with a pirate 
who was badly wounded, but Dick did not seem 
much better off, for his left arm hung broken at 
his side. Tom rushed up and clapping the 
muzzle of his pistol to the pirate’s head laid him 
dead on the spot, and put an end to the doubtful 
struggle. 

“God bless you !” said Dick, grasping Tom’s 
hand with fervor ; “ but how is this ; I ’ve seen 
you before, have n’t I ; why, good gracious, if 
this isn’t Tom Roper ! where on earth did you 
come from now, my dear fellow !” 

“I ’ll tell you all about it, Dick, when we ’ve 
cleared the ship of these miscreants !. But 5mu 
are not hurt much, are you ?” 

“ Only a trifle.” 

“ Is Alice on board ?” 

“Yes, she’s all right, with mother, down 
below, in the cabin. You are just in time to 
save them from an awful fate.” 

After exchanging these very hurried words, 
the friends again fell to fighting the pirates, 


280 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


wlio still remained on board, and, seeing that 
after all they were more numerous than the 
defenders of the ship, had recovered their wits, 
and had collected in the forecastle, with a view 
to bearing down all opposition by a final and 
overwhelming attack, or, if unsuccessful in that, 
to cripple their antagonists so greatl3\ as to 
secure for themselves a retreat to the junk which 
still lay across the bow of the Union, and make 
their escape in her. 

Turrell with his quick eye, trained b}" his 
military experience in the Crimea, saw at a 
glance the superior force of the enemy, whose 
cruel e^^es were flashing with a firm resolution 
to sweep all before them in the final and decisive 
grapple ; and he also saw how important it was 
to attack them first, and thus gain by superior 
prowess what the defenders lacked in numbers. 
Hastily organizing the Englishmen and Ameri- 
cans, and seconded by Captain Yeazie and the 
lieutenants of the Diana, he led the charge, 
his tall and martial figure towering conspicu- 
ously at the head of his partj', as he rushed 
down the main deck towards the pirates, wav- 
ing his cutlass in the air, and shouting, “Come 


adyentitees of tom eofee. 237 

< 7 . 

on, boys, let ns sweep the rascals into the 
sea !” 

Tom was close behind Turrell, eager in the 
attack on the pirates, who met the charge of 
their foes with the desperate courage of men 
who felt that there was no choice left them, but 
to win or die. Almost at the first clash of arms 
one of the largest and strongest of the pirates, 
evidently their leader, fired at Turrell, disabling 
his sword arm, and at the same instant sheathed 
a dagger in his heart. 

“My God!” groaned Turrell, and, throwing 
up his hands, fell back dead in the arms of 
Tom. The conflict went around the two friends, 
the living and the slain, but Tom heeded it not. 
Overcome with anguish by the terrible and un- 
expected catastrophe, he bent over the lifeless 
body of Turrell, tearing open his clothes to give 
him air, and vainly seeking for some signs of 
returning animation. But he was never more 
to hear the pleasant voice of his good friend 
Turrell. 

The pirates were driven overboard or into 
their junks, whither they were followed by their 
assailants, who kept up the conflict until the last 


238 


ADVENTUr.E.S OF TOM ROFEE. 


pirate was cither killed or wounded or drowned. 
A breeze having sprung up, the Diana now made 
her appearance around the headland, bearing 
down under all sail, and poupng in some effect- 
ive shots from her bow chasers on the flying 
junks. However, these were by this time pretty 
effectively disposed of ;.one of them had been run 
ashore, but the remaining three were boarded by 
the boats in chase, the crews driven into the 
water ; and the match was then applied to the 
captured craft, and they burned and blew up. 

But after the conflict on the Union had ceased, 
the survivors gave their attention to the care 
of the wounded and dead. The body, of poor 
Turrell was carefully raised and carried into 
the cabin and laid in one of the berths. And 
then it was also that Tom, for the first time in 
the day, met Alice. Still much agitated by the 
fearful scenes that had been transpiring on deck, 
and the dreadful suspense that they had felt, 
until the contest was decided in their favor, 
Alice and her mother were yet calm enough now 
to give Tom a very hearty welcome, which the 
occasion made still more impressive ; and they 
were ready also with tender words of sympathy 


239 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 

for him in the great sorrow that weighed on his 
heart from the terrible death of his friend. 

Uick had been considerably battered and was 
now put in charge of the surgeon of the Diana, 
who came on board to assist the wounded be- 
longing to the crew of the Union. It was found 
that out of a ship’s company of eighteen all 
told, four had been killed and five wounded, 
but of these one was but slightly hurt, Captain 
Veazie, who had received a flesh wound in the 
shoulder, but made light of it, and concluded to 
continue on his voyage, instead of putting back 
to Canton to fill up his crew. As Tom now ex- 
pressed the determination to return home in the 
Union, since the death of Turrell had put a stop 
to his plan of returning to Calcutta to travel in 
India, this added an efficient hand to the com- 
pany, for in any emergency Tom could easily 
make himself very useful. 

As both vessels were impatient to proceed 
on their respective courses, and as the heat of 
the weather made it impossible to carry the body 
of Turrell to a friendly port, it was decided to 
bury him that evening in the deep sea The 
corpse was taken over to the Diana, where it was 


240 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


dressed in liis best suit and enclosed in a coffin 
which the ship’s carpenter hastily put together. 
At sundown, when the broad red sun was sink- 
ing in the west, throwing a reflection of burnished 
gold on the glassy floor of the tranquil ocean, 
while no other sound floated over the deep but 
the scream of the sea-bird and the faint rippling 
of the water under the bow, the crew of the Diana 
assembled on the spar deck to the funeral. 

The coffin was placed on two camp stools, 
with the end towards an open port-hole ; over it 
was spread the English flag, drooping to the 
deck in rich and massy folds. Around were 
grouped 'fom, Alice, Captain Veazie, Mrs. King- 
bolt, and the officers of the ship, and as the sun 
sank out of sight, with a clear but slightly tremu- 
lous voice Captain Ringbolt, standing by the 
head of the coffin, read out of the prayef book 
the burial service of the Church of England. 

When the opening words, “I am the resur- 
rection and the life,” were pronounced, every 
head was uncovered and all stood listening with 
solemn and reverent attention, and tears were 
slied by more tham one, for the manly and chival- 
rous bearing of Turrell had won the respect of 


The Burial at Sea. — P age 240. 



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ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 


241 


all during his life on the Diana. Tom was con- 
vulsed with grief, and could with difficulty con- 
trol himself. But when Captain Kingbolt came 
to the closing words of the service, “We there- 
fore commit his body to the deep, to be turned 
into corruption, looking for the resurrection of 
the body when the sea shall give up her dead, 
and the life of the world to come, through our 
Lord Jesus Christ ; who at his coming shall 
change our vile body, that it may be like his 
glorious body ; according to the mighty working 
whereby he is able to subdue all things to him- 
self;” when these words were pronounced, the 
flag was withdrawn from the coffin and four 
sailors, standing one at each corner, lifted it up 
and passing it through the port-hole, let it drop 
into the sea. It fell with a dismal plunge, and 
being weighted with shot, immediately sank, and 
the remorseless waters closed over the last of 
poor Turrell. 

When the funeral was done, Tom had his 
things taken out of the cabin and put in the boat 
along side ; then, taking leave of Captain King- 
bolt and his pleasant lady and others of the ship’s 

company, in whose society he had passed so 
1(5 


242 ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER. 

many agreeable days, he was rowed over to the 
Union. The evening breeze from the land 
Av^as now rising, and both vessels made sail, the 
one for the north, the other to the southward. 
The shades of evening soon eoneealed the Diana 
from the wistful gaze of Tom, who stood on the 
quarter looking astern long after she had dis- 
appeared, musing on the events of this, perhaps 
the strangest of the many exeiting days he 
had experieneed sinee the day he sailed from 
Stoneport. 

Of the events of the voyage home there is 
not mueh to relate. Captain Yeazie was one of 
those captains who are called “lucky,” always 
making good voyages and meeting with few dis- 
asters. The most notable incident occurred one 
day when they were booming along under all 
studding sails. They came up with a "wreck, 
dismasted and rolling heavily, as if waterlogged 
and abandoned, the only thing of life visible on 
her being a sea-gull perched on the figure-head. 
Like all sailors with a good wind, the captain 
was loth to stop, but the possibility that some of 
the unfortunate crew might still be on board, 
decided him to heave to and send off a boat to 


ADVENTURES OF TOM IlOPEK. 


213 


the wreck. But not a living being was found on 
the vessel ; so the boat speedily returned, bring- 
ing with it, however, a couple of chests of a very 
choice quality of tea found in the captain’s cabin. 
Many delicious cups of that tea were afterwards 
brewed on winter nights by the cosy fireside of 
the Veazie homestead, where Tom spent many an 
evening after his return, discussing with Alice the 
events of that voyage, the day he rescued Dick 
fTOin the grasp of the savage, and the glorious 
moonlights, when they paced the deck or leaned 
over the tafirail and built their castles in the 
air. 

You will doubtless infer from this that the 
Union safely reached Boston, and that Tom 
found his parents well, and very thankful to 
clasp him again to their arms after so long an 
absence, attended with such adventures. You 
may, perhaps, infer still further, that Tom, 
having had enough of stirring incident to gratify 
him for some time to come, decided that it was 
not too late to study a profession. His mind, 
matured by its recent experiences, easily grappled 
with the preparatory studies, and he entered 
college at the commencement of junior year; 


^ 244 


ADVENTURES OF TOM ROPER 


graduated with credit, and studied law in his 
father’s oflice ; was admitted to the bar, acquired 
a good practice, and was married, as you may 
suppose, to Alice. He now lives in Stoneport, 
and owns a small schooner Avhich is also called 
the Altce^ and is accompanied on his summer 
cruises by a younger Tom, who takes after his 
father in a love of fun and adventure, and never 
tires of hearing his father relate his travels’ 
history 

“ Of most disastrous chances, 

Of moving accidents, by flood aud field.” 

Dick having, by his skill and steady conduct, 
rapidly risen to be mate of the TJnion^ now 
commands a ship running to the East Indies, 
of which he owns a large share. At last ac- 
counts he was expecting to be married, on his 
return home, to a young lady who will accom- 
pany him on his voyages. 

On the wall of a little, ivy-mantled parish 
church in Staffordshire, England, over the time- 
blackened oaken pew, where the Turrells have 
sat for many generations, is a marble tablet 
bearing the following inscription : 


ADVEXTIirtES OP' TOM EOPEIi. 


245 


- S ^ C IR IE ZD 

TO THE MEMORY OF 

ARTHUR TURRELL, Esquire. 

Last heir male of the family of Tarrell 
Turrell, of Turrell Hall, Staffordshire, 
and late captain in Her Majesty’s infan- 
try service. He fought with credit in 
the Crimea, where he was severely 
wounded ; and, in the prime of life, was 
killed in the China Sea, July 15, 1855, 
when gallantly aiding in the rescue of 
the American ship Union, from pirates. 

THIS TABLET 

\ IS ERECTED AS A 

sijica-iiT 

to his worth by the traveling companion 
and friend whose arms were around 
him when be fell. His mortal re- 
mains repose in the depths of 
ocean far away from his 
native land, but the re- 
membrance of his vir- 
tues is enshrined 
forever in the 
hearts of his 
friends. 



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